Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting named his top five Test batters of all time after the thrilling India-England Test series as well. He called former West Indian cricketer Brian Lara the most skillful batter he had played against.
However, Ponting also felt former Indian batters Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid were the best batters from a technique standpoint. He also added England’s Joe Root and New Zealand’s Kane Williamson to round off his best five batters as well.

Ponting said in an interview (via The Times): “Brian Lara was the most skilful batsman I played against and when I was captain he gave me more sleepless nights than anybody. Sachin was technically as good as anyone I’ve seen, along with Rahul Dravid; I’d put Joe in there now as well, and Kane Williamson.”

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“Stokes is a hard one. Numbers don’t define him. It’s been about moments with him, he’s a situation player. When things get toughest he’s been at his best. When you’re talking about the greats, you’ve got to talk about impact on games,” he further added.

Ricky Ponting also believes Joe Root has turned himself into an all-time great batter with his stunning performances over the last half-decade. He became the second all-time leading run-scorer in Tests behind only Tendulkar in the recently concluded five-match Test series as well.

“What he’s done the past five years is extraordinary. Look at the numbers: he’s got 13,500 runs. I rank players on how long they can stay at the top of their powers. You can be a great player for 30 to 40 games but can you do it for 150 games? Joe probably wasn’t a great player for his first 100 games — he had 17 hundreds in 97 Tests — but he’s turned into a great player. He has got 21 hundreds in his past 60 games (before the Oval Test),” concluded Ricky Ponting.