Just an awesome cricketer’: Gilchrist includes India star in top 5 T20I players
Adam Gilchrist named five players he would be looking out for in the T20 World Cup.
The months leading up to the T20 World Cup has been dominated by bilateral T20I series as teams look to prepare and land on their best combinations going into the marquee tournament. This has led to the emergence and re-emergence of a number of star players, all of whom will be among the biggest draws during the tournament in Australia this month.
Former Australia wicketkeeper-batter Adam Gilchrist has listed the five players he is looking out for in the tournament and all-rounder Hardik Pandya is the player from India to feature in it. “Pandya is just an awesome cricketer straight across the board,” Gilchrist said in a video on the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) official website. “His ability to bat, bowl, field and entertain, he’s definitely in there. He’s at the top of the order.”
Pandya has made an extraordinary comeback since the start of the 2022 Indian Premier League, in which he captained the Gujarat Titans to the title in their maiden appearance in the tournament. Since then, he has turned into a vital cog for India’s batting and bowling lineups.
He has scored 436 runs thus far this calendar year at an average of 36.33 and strike rate of 151.38, which are his best batting figures for a year by some distance in his career. Additionally, he has also taken 12 wickets in the 17 innings that he has bowled in, even taking a four-wicket haul.
Australia opener David Warner, Pakistan captain Babar Azam, England skipper Jos Buttler and Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan are the other players that Gilchrist named.
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“I think just his attacking attitude, the way he kick-starts innings at the top, and the confidence he’ll have from the previous T20 World Cup,” said Gilchrist about Warner. About Babar, Gilchrist said: “His versatility across all formats, but also when it’s getting down to T20 cricket, just across all conditions, I think he can play all conditions really well.”
The Australian wicketkeeping great said that Rashid Khan has to be there in any T20 team. “Cricketer of the year in this format across the world. Over the last decade, Rashid Khan is in there.”
“It’s a bit batting heavy I know, but Jos Buttler for me,” Gilchrist added. “He is just dynamic, his power and his courage to take it on. Simply a stroke of brilliance from him and its game over.”
