File image of Ricky Ponting© Twitter
Australia legend Ricky Ponting made some bold calls while trying to decide who will be more impactful at the 2022 T20 World Cup – Jasprit Bumrah or Shaheen Afridi. Two of the premier fast bowlers in the world, Bumrah and Afridi, boast of enviable records in the shortest format. Bumrah has picked up 69 wickets in 58 matches while Afridi has scalped 47 in 40. The two pacers are equally effective with the new ball as well as in the death overs.
Ponting too had a tough time in picking one, stating in The ICC Review: “Look, how do you split those two guys? They are two of the best performing bowlers in the world in the last couple of years in all formats of the game.”
Eventually, Ponting settled for the experienced campaigner in Bumrah. “I’ll probably go on experience alone – I’ll go for Bumrah. He’s played a fair bit of cricket in Australia now, played more in Australia than Afridi and has played more big tournaments as well than Afridi has,” he added.
Ponting was also asked to pick between two of the most consistent opening batters in the world – Babar Azam and Jos Buttler.
Babar has scored 2,138 runs in 80 matches, while Buttler has notched 1,562 runs in 94 games.
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“Babar Azam, he is technically a better player than Buttler. You look at their strike-rates though and there is no comparison there, Buttler is much more dynamic, sort of a more 360-degree player than Babar is,” Ponting noted.
“Buttler has also played more cricket in Australia with England and he has spent some time in the Big Bash with Sydney Thunder. So I’m going to go Jos Buttler on this one,” Ponting added.
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