DUBAI: Australia’s legendary all-rounder Shane Watson heaped praises on Pakistan’s top batter Babar Azam and ace pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi as he revealed the top five players in World T20I.
Watson, while featuring in the latest episode of ICC Review, unveiled the five players he would select first if given a task to select a World XI in the shortest format of the game to a query from the host Sanjana Ganesan.
“First one I’d pick would be Babar Azam,” Watson said. “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.”
The world cup-winning all-rounder then went on to pick Pakistan ace pacer, Shaheen and praised his wicket-taking ability while referring to his performance in last year’s ICC World T20.
“And the last one is Shaheen Afridi,” Watson said. “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 doesn’t really dominate in Australian conditions, with the ball swinging around and fast, bouncy wickets,” Watson maintained.
The right-handed all-rounder also expressed his concerns over Shaheen getting a bit erratic if he does not get early wickets, while at the same time hoping that the left-arm pacer would be working on it.
“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.”
It is pertinent to mention here that Shaheen was the only bowler that Watson picked in his first top five players. Whereas, the three batters beside Babar were England’s Jos Buttler, Australia’s David Warner, and India’s Suryakumar Yadav.
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