Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting picked his top five Test batters of all time after the thrilling India-England Test series. The two-time ODI World Cup-winning captain called former West Indian cricketer Brian Lara the most skillful batter he had played against.However, Ponting felt former Indian batters Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid were the best from a technique standpoint. He added England's Joe Root and New Zealand's Kane Williamson to round off his best five batters.While assessing where Joe Root stands among the all-time greats, 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."The legendary Aussie captain also called former South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis the greatest cricketer he had seen and had special praise for current England Test captain Ben Stokes."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 added.Tendulkar is the all-time leading run-scorer and centurion across formats with 34,357 and 100, respectively. Meanwhile, Dravid (7th), Lara (8th), and Root (9th) are at the back end of the top 10 among run-scorers in international cricket."Joe probably wasn’t a great player for his first 100 games" - Ricky PontingRicky Ponting believes Joe Root has turned himself into an all-time great batter with his remarkable performances over the last half-decade. The 34-year-old became the second all-time leading run-scorer in Tests behind only Tendulkar in the recently concluded India series.Root has scored a remarkable 22 of his 39 Test centuries since the start of the 2021 season."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)," said Ponting (via the aforementioned source).The former England captain is currently on 13,543 Test runs and only 2,378 runs behind Tendulkar's record of 15,921 runs.