'Samson is a lovely player to watch' - India batters dominate Nasser Hussain, Ricky Ponting's current favourite player list

Former England Captain Nasser Hussain and the former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting might be on the same page over several issues, but the duo held contrary opinions when queried about their current favourite players. Hussain was vocal about his favourite player, Rohit Sharma. Rohit called for an aggressive approach in batting when India lost the T20 World Cup 2022 semifinal against England.

He walked the talk and his change in approach was celebrated across the cricketing circuit as evident during the ODI World Cup 2023 and T20 World Cup 2024. Hussain particularly stated the India captain’s trademark pull shot to be breathtaking. On the other hand, Ponting countered and stated the India batter, Sanju Samson is “a lovely player to watch” while also highlighting India’s fiery batting lineup.

"I would say I like Rohit Sharma. I have to be honest. I just think back, and it's so hard; such a difficult task but Rohit makes it look so easy. Batting, I always felt rushed when you're facing any bowler. You feel like you're out of time. Rohit seems to have so much time to play a shot; the pull that he plays," Hussain was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.

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"Yeah, I was thinking about Rohit Sharma. In fact, you can nearly mention the whole Indian batting line-up. Let's start with Rohit; then there's Shubman Gill. I like watching him play. Think about Rishabh Pant, and you've got somebody like Virat Kohli somewhere in the middle of that. I'm not sure how much you've seen of a guy called Sanju Samson in T20 cricket. He's a lovely player to watch when he's up and about and going as well," said Ponting.

Samson recently scored one of the fastest centuries in T20I history

Sanju Samson notched up his maiden T20I century against Bangladesh in the third T20I in Hyderabad. He was promoted up the order and opened the innings along with Abhishek Sharma. The batter scored 111 runs in just 47 balls, laced with 11 boundaries and eight maximums, respectively. Quite commendably, during his belligerent knock, Samson maintained an impressive strike rate of 236.17 as well.