Former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting on Monday (September 5) named his top five players that he would pick as part of a World T20I team.

Ponting list includes two Indians in Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah. While Hardik has been impressive with both and ball ever since his return to international cricket on the back of IPL 2022 exploits, Bumrah is known for his yorkers and variations in the shortest format of the game.   

Spending his time as a broadcaster and coach around the globe, Ponting gets to observe a lot of exciting T20I talent from close quarters.

In the latest episode of ICC Review, he was asked to mention the first five players that he would select in a World T20I team and the batting legend surprisingly didn’t name any Australian in it.

Ponting’s first pick was 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.

"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.

Ponting’s second choice was none other than Pakistan skipper Babar Azam, who is holding the top spot in the ICC T20I batting rankings.

"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's next pick was Hardik Pandya as he hailed him as "probably the best T20I all-rounder.

"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.

Swashbuckling England opener Jos Buttler was Ponting’s fourth pick. Buttler has been in explosive form lately, slamming four centuries in the 2022 edition of IPL.

"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.

Bumrah, who is not featuring in the ongoing Asia Cup 2022 due to an injury, 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," he concluded.

Ricky Ponting named his top five T20I players ahead of the Asia Cup 2022, slated to be held in Australia from October 16 to November 13.

(With ICC inputs)