Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting returned to the practice nets alongside West Indies legend Brian Lara ahead of the Bushfire Bash charity match on Thursday. Ponting, who will be captaining one of the two teams in the charity match, took to Twitter to share a video of him and Lara hitting out a few balls at the nets.
In one of the tweets, in which Ponting and Lara were seen training, Ponting wrote: "If I'm batting three on Sunday, hopefully this guy is on my team and batting four @brianlara." He shared another video fo his training, which he captioned: "Just like riding a bike. A very slow bike."
If I'm batting three on Sunday, hopefully this guy is on my team and batting four @brianlara pic.twitter.com/dsaXhJTLoU
Just like riding a bike. A very slow bike. pic.twitter.com/Ba6dnHIBzO
Ponting last played a cricket match in 2015 for Warne's Wariors at Cricket All-Stars series in Los Angeles. He hammered an unbeaten 43 runs in 25 balls to help his side chase down the total of 220 set by Sachin Warriors XI. Brian Lara's last cricket match was a t20 match for Bravo XI against Pollard XI, which was a charity match at Port of Spain.
Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist will lead their respective sides in the Bushfire Cricket Bash now set to be played on Sunday at the Melbourne's Junction Oval. The fundraiser game was originally scheduled to be played between Ponting XI and Shane Warne XI on Saturday in Sydney. However, Sydney's forecast wet weather prompted Cricket Australia to reschedule the game to ensure the best possible pitch and outfield conditions are available for the Big Bash League (BBL) final, which will remain as scheduled in Sydney on Saturday night, reports cricket.com.au.
The rescheduling has meant that Warne will now be unable to take part in the Bushfire bash because of his prior commitments. Former Australia cricketers Michael Clarke and Michael Hussey as well as a number of the female stars, who were set to play, will also not be able to part of the game.
