Ricky Ponting Names 'Two Indian Players' In His List Of Top 5 T20 Cricketers In World

The two Indian players Aussie legend Ricky Ponting has included in his top 5 list are all-rounder Hardik Pandya and India's pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah.

Ponting kept Afghanistan's star bowler Rashid Khan at number 1 in his list.

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New Delhi: Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has named his top 5 players in T20 International cricket at present. The three-time World Cup winning captain included two Indians in his elite list. Apart from naming the two Indian players, Ponting named one player each from Pakistan, England, and Afghanistan. The two Indian players that Ponting has included in his top 5 list are all-rounder Hardik Pandya and India's pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah.

While Bumrah has been ruled out of Asia Cup 2022 due to a back spasm, Hardik Pandya led the Indian team to a memorable win over Pakistan in a group stage match on the back of his all-around heroics. However, in the Super 4 match, Pandya was dismissed for a duck against Pakistan.

Ponting kept Afghanistan's star bowler Rashid Khan at number 1 in his list.

“I've actually gone with Rashid Khan at number one, and the reason I thought about that was if we actually had a player event in an IPL auction now and there was no salary cap, he's probably the one that's going to go for the most amount of money,” Ponting was quoted as saying on the latest episode of The ICC Review.

At No.2, Ponting went for Pakistan skipper Babar Azam.

“Babar Azam I'll go for at number two, simply because the number one ranked batter in the T20 game for quite a while now and deservedly so,” he stated.

Hardik Pandya has been given the number three position in Ponting's list.

“He understands the game better and he understands his game better than ever before and right now he's probably the best all-rounder in the world in T20 cricket, and could potentially be in ODI cricket,” Ponting added.

England's Jos Buttler was Ponting’s pick for No. 4.

“He was one of the people who’s an out-and-out match winner, as we saw with last year's IPL, making three or four hundreds, which was quite remarkable,” Ponting mentioned.

Ponting picked Jasprit Bumrah for no. 5 spot, calling him the most complete bowler across formats.

“He is probably the most complete bowler across Test cricket, One Day cricket and T20 cricket in the world right now. Very good with the new ball when anyone decides to use him that way,” Ponting added.