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Legendary Australian batter Ricky Ponting has chosen star Indian all-rounder Hardik Pandya and lead pacer Jasprit Bumrah among the players he would select first as a part of a World T20I team.
Ponting boasts a legendary white-ball record and had led Australia in their first-ever T20I match. He scored a match-winning 98* off just 55 balls. Since then, he went on to represent his country in 17 T20I matches and scored 401 runs at an average of 28.64. Two half-centuries came out of his bat in this format. Spending his time as a broadcaster and coach across the world, Ponting gets to watch a lot of exciting T20I talent from a close distance.
In the latest episode of ICC Review, he was asked to select the first five players that he would select in a World T20I team. However, his list does not feature any players from Australia.
His first player on the list is star Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan, who is currently ranked third in ICC T20I Bowling Rankings.
"Five players is relatively easy, but trying to put them in order from one to five makes it a little bit more difficult. I have 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 is probably the one that is going to go for the most amount of money," he said.
He cited his consistency, wicket-taking ability and his "outstanding" economy rate in T20s as factors in his selection.
"When you are playing against any team that he is playing in you probably have less sleep that night than you do for any other game that you play during the year," he added.
The Australian great chose the top-ranked T20I batter, Pakistan star Babar Azam as his second player.
"Babar Azam I will go for at number two, simply because the number one ranked batter in the T20 game for quite a while now and deservedly so. His record speaks for itself. He is pretty much led the way for that Pakistan team for the last couple of years," he said.
Ponting chose Hardik Pandya as his number three player, terming him as "probably the best T20I all-rounder. Pandya is currently at number five in T20I All-Rounder Rankings.
"On current form, it's 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 ... he has had some really big injury setbacks, which has obviously affected how much he has been able to play for India," he said.
"But he is 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 he is probably the best all-rounder in the world in T20 cricket, and could potentially be in ODI cricket," he added.
Star English opener Jos Buttler, currently at number 16 in T20I Batting Rankings, is Ponting's fourth player.
"I had to pick Jos Buttler in there actually. When you are coaching against him, you just know that he has got something that a lot of other players do not have; the ability to take the game away in a short period of time opening the batting - which he will do for England this tournament," he said.
"He was one of the people who is an out-and-out match-winner as we saw with last year's IPL, making three or four hundreds, which was quite remarkable. His batting went to another level in the last year or so," added the Aussie great.
Star Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah, currently 37th in the ICC T20I Bowling Rankings, is the final player on Ponting's list.
"Jasprit 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 way," he said.
"India 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 high-quality death overs, which every team is looking for - someone that can execute slow balls and bouncers," added Ponting.
Notably, ICC T20 World Cup 2022 will take place from October 16 to November 13 this year.