While many modern-day cricket greats including the likes of Virat Kohli, Steven Smith, and Kane Williamson among others not being in great form, Pakistan skipper Babar Azam has been in the form of his life.

The 27-year-old has been very dominant in white-ball cricket, with his No.1 ranking in both T20Is and ODIs, while occupying the 3rd spot in the Test rankings.

Australian legend Ricky Ponting while discussing with The ICC Review spoke about the meteoric rise of Babar since the last time he had seen the young batter play in Australia a few years back.

“I saw him up close and personal a couple of years ago out here in a Test series against Australia and I said it then, I thought the sky was the limit for this guy as far as Test match batting (was concerned) and, if anything, he’s probably got better and better in the last couple of years,” he said.

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The former cricketer also acknowledged the presence of Mohammad Rizwan and star pacer Shaheen Afridi, both of whom have been in exceptional form.  He also noted that the batting order of Pakistan is heavily dependent on its skipper.

"If Babar doesn’t have a great tournament, I don’t think they can win," he said.

"Their openers are very important and their new-ball bowlers are very important, but that role of the spin bowler in Australia might be a little bit more difficult with wickets that probably won’t give them assistance," he said further.

Babar and his men came close to winning the T20 World Cup last year after putting on a dominant show in the group stage, which included a 10-wicket victory over the arch-rivals India. They eventually lost to Australia, the eventual champions, in the semi-finals.

(HT INPUTS)