‘Excited to see Babar Azam playing’: Ricky Ponting ahead of Australia-Pakistan Test series

Ahead of the Australia-Pakistan two-match Tests series, former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting said that he is excited to see Babar Azam batting in Tests against Australia.

The World Cup-winning skipper believes that Babar is still not at his very best in the longest format of the game and it’s only a matter of time before the right-hander improves on his underwhelming Test record.

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“He’s a really exciting talent and probably the guy I’m looking forward to seeing the most this summer,” Ponting as quoted by Cricket Australia, adding, “I’ve seen the Aussies a lot and I’ve seen a lot of the Kiwis, but I’m really excited to see him. He could be anything.”

Praising Babar’s potential, the 44-year-old Australian said, “We haven’t seen the best of him yet. Twenty-odd Tests for an average of 35 – he’s better than that. He averages 54 in one-day cricket at a strike-rate of about 90. He’s a very, very classy player.”

Notably, Babar is the world’s third-ranked ODI batsman and number 1 in T20 cricket. The classy right-handed batsman made a brilliant start to the preparation for the two-Test series as he hit a masterful 157 in the practice game against Australia ‘A’. This came after he scored two fifties in the three-match T20I series that saw the hosts win 2-0 as the first game saw no result due to the rain.

The two-match Test series between Australia and Pakistan will start from November 21.