File photo of Ricky Ponting© AFP
Ricky Ponting believes Australia will have a "point to prove" after two straight Test series defeats at home against India and backed the Pat Cummins-led side to win the five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy 3-1 come November-December. India, who have returned victorious in both their previous Test assignments Down Under with identical margins of 2-1, will take on the world No.1 Australia in a five-Test series starting on November 22. "It's going to be a competitive series. Australia has got a bit of a point to prove against India in Australia on the back of what happened the last the last two series here," Ponting told 'The ICC Review'. "We are back to (having) five Tests as well, which is the other really important thing about this series. It has only been four Tests the last couple of time. (To have) five Tests, everyone is really excited by that and I don't know if there'd be too many drawn games.
"I'm obviously going to tip Australia to win and I'm never going to tip against Australia. There will be a draw somewhere and there will be some bad weather somewhere, so I'm going to say 3-1 to Australia," he added.
India and Australia have not played a five-Test series after their bilateral affairs came to be known as the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Before that, in 1991-92, India had toured Australia for a five-Test series.
Ponting backed India's left-arm seamer Khaleel Ahmed, whom he coached in the IPL at Delhi Capitals, to be a part of India's touring party.
"Someone like Khaleel Ahmed, I think, could find himself on the Test tour. He has just been over in Zimbabwe recently and played that (T20I) series over there, but a left-armer would be ideal for them to have in their touring squad," Ponting said.
The former Australia skipper hoped both teams will be deploying full-fledged bowling attacks.
"(Mohammed) Shami will be back fit by then, (Mohammed) Siraj we know will be there-abouts somewhere and obviously (Jasprit) Bumrah is going nowhere. Both teams are going to line up really, really strongly," he said.
Ponting said the competitiveness between India and Australia is quite close to the Ashes rivalry against England.
"I was a part of it when that really started to grow, when the rivalry really started to grow, was it's right at the back end of my career," Ponting said.
"I've said for the last couple of years now, Australia have always had a fierce rivalry with England, obviously, and a very strong rivalry with South Africa.
"But I think India is now sitting right on the back of what an Ashes clash is like and probably overtaken the rivalry with South Africa.
Ponting said while Australia's squad looks more or less settled, it remains to be seen if Steve Smith would like to persist being at the opening slot.
"Australia will pretty much pick itself. Probably, the only one question there might be with Australia again, is if (Steve) Smith's the right man to be opening the batting," he said.
"That would be the only query that I can see there. But that was all about obviously bringing Cameron Green back into the side.
"So I'll rephrase it, not whether Smith's the right man to open the batting but whether he thinks it's the right spot for him. Because if he doesn't think it's the right spot, then they'll make a change and get someone else back up there," Ponting added.