Marcus Stoinis is five times better than what he was last year, feels Ricky Ponting

Marcus Stoinis had never been a great shout-out in the IPL despite the Aussie playing one of the most destructive innings in international history apart from having a great run of form for Melbourne Stars in the BBL. However, the recently-concluded IPL saw the Victorian doing away with the also-ran tag to have an all-round impact for Delhi Capitals from game 1, and Ponting saw the transformation first hand. 

He was told by Alex Carey, who was also a part of the Capitals franchise, about Stoinis’ transformation and he could see the change after having a couple of net sessions with him.

"Alex Carey said to me, 'trust me, he's on top of his game and he's a different player than he was before'. And as soon as I saw him, I understood what he was talking about,” Ponting told cricket.com.au this week.

"From the moment he turned up at the IPL, having come straight from England … he was pretty keen to show me improvements that he'd made. And his first few net sessions, I could just tell then.”

"Having spent a fair bit of time with him over the past couple of years, what I saw from him at the IPL suggests to me that he's a five times better player than he was 12 months ago."

The duo will team up once again as Australia gear up to take on India in a full-fledged tour that’ll begin with three ODIs as Ponting joined as the team’s batting mentor for the Indian tour.