New Delhi, Jan 31 (IANS) Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has predicted that India opener Abhishek Sharma will be one of the top players at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026.

He thinks the left-hander could end the tournament as the leading run-scorer and even win Player of the Tournament.

The ICC Hall of Famer believes Abhishek’s inexperience at ICC events might actually help him. The 25-year-old is expected to make his T20 World Cup debut when the tournament starts on February 7.

“He’s a star,” Ponting said in the latest edition of The ICC Review. “I think it’s (lack of experience) a real positive to be honest. He can be the leading run-scorer and potentially the Player of the Tournament.

“That’s how good I think he is. And if he does, that makes India even harder to beat. If he doesn’t, then they’re as vulnerable as anybody else. So that’s how important I think he is to this (T20) World Cup for India.”

Ponting believes that being on a global stage will not faze Abhishek due to his experience working with him when he started out in the Indian Premier League.

“I was his first IPL coach,” Ponting recalled from his time at Delhi Capitals. “He debuted with me, I think as a 17-year-old at Delhi and made an immediate impact.

“I think he hit his first ball for four or six straight back over the bowler’s head with that classical sort of straight bat and held the pose. And you could just see then as a 17-year-old that there was something extra special.”

Ponting also revealed he had strongly opposed Delhi Capitals’ decision to trade Abhishek, convinced even then that the youngster was destined for greatness.

“We ended up trading him away from Delhi, but I pleaded and pleaded and pleaded and said, please don’t do this. We’ve got to (keep him), there’s an absolute superstar in the making here.

“And that’s what it’s turned out to be. I’ve got really high hopes for him in this time.”

Abhishek was a part of India’s Under-19 Cricket World Cup-winning team in 2018 and now will be playing in his first international T20 World Cup.

Prior to the T20 World Cup, Abhishek has been in great form hitting 152 runs in 4 games against New Zealand in the T20I series. In the third game, he scored a half-century off of just 14 balls which is the second-fastest half-century by an Indian in T20Is.

The only Indian to have scored a half-century quicker than that was Yuvraj Singh who scored is half-century in only 12 balls vs England in 2007.

Abhishek is expected to be a key player in India’s quest to become the first team to win back-to-back Men’s T20 World Cups.

India has been placed in Group A with Pakistan, USA, Namibia and the Netherlands. They will begin their title defence at the T20 World Cup vs the USA on February 7.

–IANS

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