Ricky Ponting names Pandya and Bumrah in his list of top 5 T20I players

Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting on Monday picked Indias Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah in his top five World T20I players Ponting was the skipper of Australia when they played in their firstever mens T20I making 98 not out off 55 balls in a matchwinning performance against New ZealandSince his international comeback in June Pandyas stock as an allrounder has been on the rise with his allround performances leading India to victories an example of which was the Group A match against Pakistan in Asia Cup 2022On current form its pretty hard to go past Hardik Pandya at number three His IPL was outstanding To see him back at the bowling crease is something that I was always a little bit unsure would actually ever happen hes had some really big injury setbacks which has obviously affected how much hes been able to play for IndiaBut hes back bowling and at 140kph which he was doing four or five years ago But his batting and his maturity while batting have come on in leaps and bounds He understands the game better and he understands his game better than ever before and right now hes probably the best allrounder in the world in T20 cricket and could potentially be in ODI cricket explained Ponting on the ICC Review show for picking PandyaDespite not featuring in the Asia Cup due to a back injury Bumrah is Indias trump card with the ball able to deliver the goods for his team in any phase of the match with his variety of slower balls bouncers and yorkersJasprit Bumrah in at number five 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 wayAlso Read Cricket legends criticize Rishabh Pant for his shot selection vs PakistanIndia might think of giving him an over with the new ball in Australia at the T20 World Cup where it might swing but what you can guarantee is a couple of great highquality death overs which every team is looking for someone that can execute slow balls and bouncers elaborated PontingOther players picked by Ponting include Pakistan skipper Babar Azam Englands whiteball captain Jos Buttler and Afghanistan legspinner Rashid Khan Azam has been a prolific runscorer for Pakistan in whiteball cricket despite him yet to play a big knock in Asia CupBabar Azam Ill go for at number two simply because he is the number one ranked batter in the T20 game for quite a while now and deservedly so His record speaks for itself Hes pretty much led the way for that Pakistan team for the last couple of years added PontingRashid is Pontings number one pick who admitted that picking players in order of one to five is a difficult task Ive 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 hes probably the one thats going to go for the most amount of moneyIve got him at number one for his consistency his wickettaking ability over a long period of time but also the fact that his economy rate in the T20 game is just outstanding When youre playing against any team that hes playing in you probably have less sleep that night than you do for any other game that you play during the yearPonting signed off by revealing why Buttler is amongst his top five picks When youre coaching against him you just know that hes got something that a lot of other players dont have the ability to take the game away in a short period of time opening the batting which he will do for England this tournamentHe was one of the people whos an outandout matchwinner as we saw with this years IPL making three or four hundreds which was quite remarkable His batting went to another level in the last year or soThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever