Ricky Ponting, former Australia captain and Delhi Capitals head coach, commented on certain key Australian players' IPL performances in light of the forthcoming ICC Men's T20 World Cup in 2024.
Several regulars from the Australian Men's T20 World Cup squad competed in the IPL.
While Travis Head dominated the competition with his blazing batting, Mitchell Starc struggled for consistency early on before producing back-to-back Player of the Match performances in his final two appearances in the Kolkata Knight Riders' title-winning run.
Travis Head was at his belligerent best for Sunrisers Hyderabad, scoring over 500 runs at a strike rate of above 200.
Some of his knocks demonstrated his clean-striking ability at its most destructive. Ponting attributed this to a free brain space.
"He's not worried about the negative of getting out. You've got to go out there and try in the first ball for six. If it comes off, it comes off. You're away, your team's away," Ponting noted as quoted by ICC.
Ponting went on to say that the player's approach to the game had altered in recent years, and the results were obvious to everyone.
" he was worried about what someone might have said or what the media wrote if he got out playing a certain shot, rather than just going out and backing himself and scoring runs. So for me, that's been the real change in him," the World Cup-winning captain stated.
Kolkata Knight Riders’ Mitchell Starc has been pricey with the ball and has leaked runs at a rate closer to 11, but the left-armer found his rhythm in the later stages of the competition, winning consecutive Player of the Match awards in his final two games.
Starc was making his IPL comeback for the first time since 2015, and the Kolkata Knight Riders paid a hefty 24.75 crores for him.
"The expectation that comes with the price tag sometimes it makes players push out a little bit harder and try to do more than they need to do," Ponting mentioned.
Starc had arguably his worst stretches at Eden Gardens, the home of the Knight Riders, where he conceded runs at an economy rate of 14.8 in three consecutive games.
Ponting believed this was due to the changing conditions in India, and that the player may have made a bigger impact in somewhat different conditions during the T20 World Cup.
"You know, conditions where Mitch is bowling at Eden Gardens, the ball didn't swing much there this year, and the ground is like, like it's a small ground and the outfield's like concrete," the former right-hand batter added.
"And when you're bowling at Starc's pace, inside edges that just make their way through the field end up going for four. It's not the easiest place in the world to bowl fast, but, you know, if we go to the Caribbean where the wind's a little bit slower and the ball's not flying off the bat quite as hard, then Starc will have an impact," the 49-year-old concluded.