Babar Azam can become one of the best batsmen in the world: Ricky Ponting

Babar Azam has been one of the major pillars of Pakistan’s batting. Recently, he was appointed the T20I captain of his country but a series win remained elusive in Australia. But, the 25-year-old bagged his first series win as the skipper on Sunday when Pakistan thumped Bangladesh by 9 wickets to clinch the three-match series.

Azam opened the innings in both games and while he fell for a duck in the first game and he belted 66 not out in 44 balls to add unbeaten 131 runs with veteran Mohammad Hafeez (67 not out off 49) to win the game comprehensively in the 2nd T20I.

Babar’s talent was never under question but it was his temperament which had come under the scanner at times. During the World Cup game against India last June, he was leading the chase along with Fakhar Zaman but then failed to pick the line of one from Kuldeep Yadav to get bowled. Former Pakistan cricketers slammed Babar for not being able to complete the job.

Babar Azam was among runs in Australia last year

But after his match-winning knock against Bangladesh that earned him the man-of-the-match award, former Australia captain Ricky Ponting showered big praise on the man. During an interaction with fans on Twitter, Ponting was asked to express his views on Azam’s run during the Australia-Pakistan Test series Down Under last November-December. Pakistan lost both the Tests of the series by an innings but Babar had a good run with the bat with one century and one 90-plus score.

“I thought Babar was extremely impressive. Looks to have a lot of class and could well become one of the best batsmen in the world,” Ponting, 45, said in response to one Fahad Ahmad who asked how impressive the Pakistan batsman was in Australia given the fact that New Zealand struggled with the bat in the series that followed (Australia won that 3-0).

I thought Babar was extremely impressive. Looks to have a lot of class and could well become one of the best batsmen in the world https://t.co/1xFGCQBcHW

— Ricky Ponting AO (@RickyPonting) January 27, 2020

Babar Azam has played in 25 Tests, 74 ODIs and 38 T20Is so far in which he has scored over 6,000 runs with 15 hundreds. He averages above 50 in both the limited-over formats and above 42 in the long format.