'Delhi Capitals Will Offer Him A Retention': Ricky Ponting On Jake Fraser-McGurk's Future In IPL

Legendary Australian captain and former Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting feels that there is a high possibility that the Delhi-based franchise will retain Australian batting sensation Jake Fraser-McGurk ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auction. According to him, the 22-year-old right-handed top-order batter, who made his IPL debut in 2024, is an exciting talent who works really hard on his game.

The all-time leading run scorer for Australia in Tests and ODIs says that he hasn’t seen Fraser-McGurk much since the IPL but has predicted that the batter will make a lot of money really quickly early in his career.

“In the IPL, how’s he (Fraser-McGurk) kind of dealt with all of that a little bit?” A commentator asked Ponting on Friday when he was on air for Sony Sports during the second England-Australia T20I.

In reply to the question about his fellow countryman, Ponting, who won two ODI World Cup titles as Australian captain, said, “It’s a good question because I haven’t actually seen much of him since the IPL. I love working with him and coaching him. He’s a great kid. He works really hard on his game, but things have happened so quickly. There’s an IPL auction coming up in probably November or December,” Ponting said.

“There’s every chance that the Delhi Capitals will offer him a retention. He’s going to make a lot of money really quickly early in his career. Still, he’s not the finished product yet and has to work it all out. I think he can eventually play Test cricket for Australia eventually,” he added.

Unlike his IPL career, Fraser-McGurk made a forgetful start to his T20I career and was out for a two-ball duck in his first match against Scotland a couple of weeks ago in Edinburgh. He scored 16 and 0 in the next two matches, after which he was dropped from the playing XI for the series opener against England in Southampton, which the Aussies won by 28 runs on September 11.

However, due to Mitchell Marsh’s absence from the second match, he got a chance to play again, and this time he made it count by scoring 50 runs from 31 balls as a No. 3 batter.