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Watson names 'incredible' India star among top-5 T20I players in the world; explains reason for ranking him at 2nd spot
Former Australia all-rounder Shane Watson listed his top-5 T20I players in the world at the moment, and picked one Indian in the list.
Since a dismal campaign in the T20 World Cup last year, Team India saw a number of significant changes including a switch in captaincy. Rohit Sharma took over the reins from Virat Kohli, and this year saw the emergence of multiple bowlers (pacers, in particular) in the Indian team. Additionally, Hardik Pandya and Dinesh Karthik, who were once integral members of India's limited-overs side, also made brilliant comebacks to the national team. However, one player who stood out particularly with his consistent performances in the middle-order is Suryakumar Yadav.
The 31-year-old is currently in second position in ICC Men's T20I Player Rankings, just 13 points behind top-ranked Pakistan captain Babar Azam. The meteoric rise of Suryakumar is being hailed across the globe by cricket experts and former players, and some even drew his comparisons with South Africa great AB de Villiers. Now, former Australia cricketer Shane Watson has picked him among his top-five world T20 players.
Watson named Suryakumar as his second pick among the top five world T20 players, playing currently. Besides Suryakumar, Babar Azam (Pakistan), David Warner (Australia), Jos Butler (England) and Shaheen Afridi (Pakistan) were the other four players that Watson picked in his list.
Talking about Suryakumar in the ICC Review, Watson said: "He is batting incredibly well, and he would be my No.2 pick."
Watson revealed why he chose Babar Azam at the top. "First one I’d pick would be Babar Azam. He’s the No.1 T20I batsman in the world, and he just knows how to dominate. It’s like he’s not even taking any risks, and he scores incredibly quickly against the best bowlers in the world. He’s going to do very well in Australian conditions (during the T20 World Cup) as well, as his technique is very much built for Australian conditions."
Another Pakistan player in the list, Shaheen Afridi is facing a race against time to recover from his knee injury. If all goes well, Afridi will don the Pakistan jersey for the T20 World Cup and Watson, who put him at no.5 in the list, said that the pacer has a “special” ability of taking wickets.
"His wicket-taking ability is something special. We saw in the last men’s T20 World Cup his ability to be able to get the best batsmen out with that brand new ball.
“I’d be very surprised if he(Shaheen) doesn’t really dominate in Australian conditions, with the ball swinging around and fast, bouncy wickets. My only little concern with him is, if he doesn’t take wickets to start with, then he can tail off a little bit. But I’m sure he’s been working on that. I’d be surprised if he doesn’t dominate here,” Watson said.
The former Aussie all-rounder also talked in detail about his other two choices namely; Warner and Buttler. Providing reasons for choosing Warner, the Australian explained, "He has scored some great runs for the Delhi Capitals (in the IPL). He’s going to have plenty of fire in his belly to make his mark in a T20 World Cup at home, so he’s going to be ready to go."
On selecting England's white-ball captain Jos Buttler, Watson explained, "During the IPL, well a lot of times anyway, no one could get him out. Four hundreds has only been done once before in an IPL, with Virat Kohli doing that (in 2016).
“When he’s in form, and he has been in form, he’s just about impossible in T20 cricket to get out. He can hit wherever he wants off the best bowlers in the world. And he knows Australian conditions really well, he’s played the Big Bash and did very well a few years ago, when I played with him at the Sydney Thunder.”
