Former Australian captain, Ricky Ponting, has included Pakistan’s star batter, Babar Azam, amongst his top five T20I players in the world currently. Ponting was asked to pick five players in his dream T20I World XI during an interview with the International Cricket Council (ICC).
Ponting included Babar Azam as his second pick in the line-up due to his sensational record in the shortest format of the game. Ponting said it is hard to ignore Babar because he has been the number one batter in the world for a long time and deservedly so.
The 47-year-old added that Babar has been the leading man for Pakistan over the past few years and is one of the most consistent batters in world cricket currently.
His record speaks for itself. He’s pretty much led the way for that Pakistan team for the last couple of years
The legendary batter went on to include two players from India and one each from England and Afghanistan in his T20I World XI. Ponting’s first pick was Afghanistan’s ace leg-spinner, Rashid Khan, due to his uncanny ability to pick up wickets at regular intervals and also because of his invaluable hitting skills lower down the order.
England’s Jos Buttler and the Indian duo of Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya were his other three picks in the top five T20I players in the world.
