Shane Watson picks Babar, Shaheen among top five World T20I players
DUBAI: Australia’s legendary all-rounder Shane Watson praised Pakistan’s best batsman Babar Azam and best pacemaker Shaheen Shah Afridi as he revealed the top five players in World T20I.
Watson, while participating in the latest episode of ICC Review, revealed the five players he would select first if given the task of selecting a World XI in the game’s shortest format to a query from host Sanjana Ganesan.
“The first one I would pick would be Babar Azam,” Watson said. “He’s the world No.1 T20I hitter, and he just knows how to dominate.
“It’s like he’s not even taking any chances, and he scores incredibly fast against the best bowlers in the world.
“He will also do very well in Australian conditions (during the T20 World Cup) as his technique is very much built for Australian conditions.
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The world cup-winning all-rounder then picked Pakistan’s top pacer Shaheen, praising his wicket-taking ability while referring to his performance at last year’s ICC World T20.
“And the last one is Shaheen Afridi,” Watson said. “His ability of him to take the wicket is something special.
“We saw in the last men’s T20 World Cup his ability to be able to get the best hitters out with that new ball.
I would be very surprised if he doesn’t really dominate in Australian conditions, with the ball moving and fast, bouncing wickets,” Watson said.
The right-handed all-rounder also expressed concern that Shaheen could become a bit erratic if he doesn’t get the early wickets, while at the same time hoping the pacemaker in his left arm is working on it.
“My only little concern with him is, if he doesn’t take wickets to start with, then he may slow down a little bit.
But I’m sure he’s been working on it. I’d be surprised if he doesn’t dominate here.”
It is pertinent to mention here that Shaheen was the only bowler that Watson chose in his top five best bowlers. While the three batsmen alongside Babar were England’s Jos Buttler, Australia’s David Warner and India’s Suryakumar Yadav.
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