Ricky Ponting Tips 'Extreme Talent' Jake Fraser-McGurk to be 'Three-Format Player' for Australia in the Future

Australia’s two-time World Cup-winning captain, Ricky Ponting set massive expectations on the young batting sensation, Jake Fraser-McGurk as the former skipper sees the young talent being the next big three-format player to represent Australia.

Ponting in a conversation with SkySports Cricket, believes that the Melbourne-based talent is still very young and working out how to deal with playing at the international level.

The youngster was fast-tracked onto the international scene after his stellar show with the bat for the Ponting-coached Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League for the 2024 season. But since making his debut in both the 20 and 50-over format, he is yet to find his best form which saw him going at a rapid pace with the bat.

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“Oh, look he’s an extreme talent. He’s a ball-striking talent. He’s still very much a rough diamond. though. I’m not sure in his own head he’s actually worked out exactly the right way to go about it yet,” said the former Delhi Capitals Head Coach.

Ponting believes that Fraser-McGurk can get stuck trying to score runs over the mid-wicket and long-on regions and suggested that he should look to improving his game to ensure that he can access all parts of the ground when batting.

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“He only goes one way. But when he’s thinking about hitting the ball to different parts of the ground is when you see the best Jake Fraser-McGurk. Quite often he’ll get sort of stuck in trying to hit it in one direction which is normally down over long-on or to mid-wicket. If he tries to think about scoring 360 degrees around the ground, he’s as clean a striker as I think I’ve ever seen,” Ponting shared.

Ponting hailed massive praise of the youngster’s demeanour when it comes to his batting and believes that his no-fear approach could make him the next big player for Australia across all three formats.

“He’s probably 5 foot 10, he’s not a big kid but he hits the ball extremely hard and has got no fear and is a gun in the field. So he’s someone I think in the future can be a three-format player for Australia,” he concluded.