Ricky Ponting wants Australia to include Tim David in their T20 World Cup squad

Former captain Ricky Ponting has backed Singapore-Australian cricketer Tim David to be included in Australia's T20 World Cup squad.

David, who has played 114 T20s over the years, has been one of the consistent lower-order batsmen, scoring runs for fun across T20 leagues. He has 2,556 runs at an average of 33.19 and a fine strike rate of 164.79 since making his professional debut in 2018.

Out of the 114 games, 14 came for Singapore, where he scored 558 runs at an average of 46.50 and strike rate of 158.52. David's last appearance for Singapore came in March 2020 when his country played against Hong Kong in Bangkok.

The 26-year-old David, who was bought by Mumbai Indians (MI) at INR 8.25 crore at the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 mega auction, has featured in a number of leagues, including Big Bash League (BBL), Caribbean Premier League (CPL), Pakistan Super League (PSL), T20 Blast, and The Hundred.

"If I was a selector, I would love to have someone like that in my team. If he's playing or not, just to have that sort of striking power ability around, he's an out and out match-winner," said Ponting in a recent interview.

Comparing David with Andrew Symonds, who played a vital role in Australia's 2003 World Cup triumph, Ponting said that the former was a match winner.

"He's the sort of player that could actually win you a World Cup. He's not just the average run-of-the-mill guy that might just sneak into a squad. I mean, he actually reminds me a bit of someone like an Andrew Symonds back in the 2003 World Cup. You know if you get them in and you give him an opportunity they're a chance of winning a tournament for you.

That's how I'd be looking at him right now. I know there are some other great world-quality players in the middle order for Australia. But probably none of them boasts the resume as good as Tim's over the last two years," added Ponting.

David, who did not play all the games for MI in IPL 2022, was quite impressive at the fag end of the tournament but by that time, the five-time champions had already been eliminated.

"He's been incredible in almost every tournament that he's played around the world, the last 12 or 18 months. He was probably a little bit unlucky not to play more in the IPL this year to be honest, with the way that he started with Mumbai and then didn't come back until right near the end and played some match-winning knocks then."

"He's a very, very good, very dangerous T20 player that I'm sure the Australian selectors are thinking long and hard about for the World Cup in a couple of months time," Australia's World Cup-winning skipper concluded.

The T20 World Cup is scheduled to take place later this year in Australia, who are also the defending champion. Aaron Finch and Co claimed their maiden T20 World Cup trophy last year, where they defeated New Zealand in the final at Dubai International Cricket Stadium.