Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has lavished high praise on India allrounder Hardik Pandya who has been in terrific form since IPL 2022 where he led debutant Gujarat Titans to title win. Pandya carried his IPL form into international cricket and last week produced a match-winning allround show for India during a high-voltage Asia Cup 2022 clash against Pakistan.
During an episode of The ICC Review, Ponting was asked to name the first five players he would select if building a World T20I team. Two out of them were Indian cricketers including Pandya and fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah.
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“On current form, it’s pretty hard to go past Hardik Pandya at number three," Ponting said after naming Rashid Khan and Babar Azam as his first two players.
Ponting revealed that he was unsure whether Pandya would ever be back bowling at full tilt since undergoing a major back surgery that had troubled him for some time.
“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’s had some really big injury setbacks, which has obviously affected how much he’s been able to play for India," he said.
“But he’s back bowling, and at 140kph which he was doing four or five years ago. But his batting and his maturity while batting has come on in leaps and bounds," he added.
Ponting said Pandya has a much better grasp of his game now and is probably the best T20 allrounder in the world and has a potential to be one in ODI cricket as well.
“He understands the game better and he understands his game better than ever before and right now he’s probably the best allrounder in the world in T20 cricket, and could potentially be in ODI cricket," he said.
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