"Even if it means that you put yourself and the team on the line"- Ricky Ponting wants India & Australia to force a result in WTC Final

Former Australian captain and legendary cricketer Ricky Ponting feels both India and Australia have to play positive and aggressive cricket in the World Test Championship (WTC) final at The Oval beginning on June 7.

Ponting believes both teams have the players who can play the aggressive brand of cricket needed to ensure that the WTC Final doesn't end up in a stalemate. He wants them to take that risk of enticing the opposition to go hard and have almost an equal chance of winning and losing the game.

Speaking to Star Sports, here's what Ricky Ponting had to say ahead of the WTC Final:

"The cricket world deserves to see an unbelievably good Test match with a result. We don't want a drwan game. So I will tell both captains let's go out there and play good hard aggressive Test match cricket and make sure there's a result at the end. Even if it means that you put yourself and the team on the line to potentially lose a game in order to win the game, then do it."

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Ricky Ponting on England's brand of Test cricket

Ricky Ponting gave the example of how England have been playing Test cricket under the leadership of Ben Stokes and the coaching of Brendon McCullum over the past year.

He opined that both captains Rohit Sharma and Pat Cummins should play a similar brand of cricket and show the courage to go for the win. He stated:

"The really refreshing way that I have seen Test cricket being played over the past couple of years is how England play, the win-at-all-cost approach. They have played Test cricket the best way it should be played. I think both captains in the final should show that Test cricket can be played aggressively."

India WTC final squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Ravichandran Ashwin, KS Bharat (wk), Shubman Gill, Ravindra Jadeja, Virat Kohli, Ishan Kishan (wk), Cheteshwar Pujara, Axar Patel, Ajinkya Rahane, Mohammad Shami, Mohammad Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Jaydev Unadakt, Umesh Yadav.