T20 World Cup 2026: Neither Samson, nor Bumrah…Ricky Ponting called this player the number-1 star of the tournament, chose his top-5
T20 World Cup 2026: After the conclusion of the T20 World Cup 2026, former Australian captain and veteran cricketer Ricky Ponting has released his special rating of the best players of the tournament. The interesting thing in this list was that he left behind India’s star players and named England’s all-rounder Will Jacques as the most influential player of the tournament.
According to a PTI news, Ponting gave Jacques a full 10 out of 10 and placed him at the first position in his rankings. His rating created a lot of discussion in the cricket world, because many Indian players also performed brilliantly in this tournament.
Ponting’s top-5 list
The list of players according to Ricky Ponting’s rating was as follows:
- Will Jacques (England) – 10/10
- Sanju Samson (India) – 9.5/10
- Jasprit Bumrah (India) – 9.5/10
- Tim Seifert (New Zealand) – 9/10
- Sahibzada Farhan (Pakistan) – 8.5/10
Two players from India are included in this list, but according to Ponting, Jacques remained at the top due to his all-round performance in the tournament.
Great all-round performance from Will Jacques
England all-rounder Will Jaques impressed with both bat and ball throughout the tournament. He played the role of finisher for England in many matches and also took important wickets with the bowling when needed.
Jacques scored 226 runs in this T20 World Cup, while his average was 56.50. During this period, one half-century and three innings of 30+ runs came from his bat. Along with this, he also took 9 wickets in bowling. With this performance, he became one of the few players to score more than 200 runs and take more than 9 wickets in an edition of the T20 World Cup.
Many records were also made in the tournament
Jacques also made many important achievements in this tournament. He set the record for scoring the most runs in a single edition of the T20 World Cup while batting at No. 6 or below.
Furthermore, he also won the ‘Player of the Match’ award four times. In a match against Italy, he also scored the fastest half-century in T20 World Cup history for England by scoring a half-century in just 21 balls. In the semi-finals too, Will Jacques was the best performer for England – he took 2 wickets for India along with a quick-fire innings of 35 runs.
Hardik Pandya was the most influential player from India in this competition of all-rounders. He performed brilliantly with both bat and ball throughout the tournament, scoring 217 runs and also took 9 wickets. However, it is worth noting that England was eliminated after losing to India in the semi-finals, and Hardik got a chance to play more matches. This could be the reason why Will Jacques has been given the top position in Ricky Ponting’s ranking.
Samson becomes official ‘Player of the Tournament’
Although Will Jacques remained first in Ponting’s personal ratings, the official ‘Player of the Tournament’ award went to India’s wicketkeeper batsman Sanju Samson.
Samson scored 321 runs in the entire tournament and performed brilliantly in the knockout matches. He scored an unbeaten 97 runs against West Indies in the first Knockout Super-8 match and then played an important role in helping Team India win the title by playing important innings of 89-89 runs in both the semi-final and final matches.
Bumrah’s bowling was also decisive
Indian fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah also appeared in excellent form throughout the tournament. He put pressure on the opposition teams by taking wickets on many important occasions and was among the most successful bowlers in the tournament. In a high pressure match like the final (India vs New Zealand), along with taking four wickets, the way Bumrah bowled the 17th-19th overs, there is hardly any bowler today who can bowl with such an accurate line and length.
Overall, many players performed brilliantly in the T20 World Cup 2026, but in the eyes of Ricky Ponting, Will Jacques emerged as the biggest star due to his all-round impact.
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