Legendary Australian cricketer Ricky Pointing says he was “shocked” at Virat Kohli just lately stepping down from Test captaincy however advised that he should have taken the choice in his bid to do higher with the bat and break some data.
Ponting, one of the profitable captains ever, hailed Kohli for his management expertise, saying that underneath him India had improved its abroad file by winnings extra Tests overseas than earlier than.
He additionally backed Rohit Sharma to do properly as Kohli’s successor.
“Yes, it did actually (surprise me)…I was shocked… Probably the main reason why is I had a chat and good catch-up with Virat during the first part of the IPL (2021) before it got postponed,” Ponting mentioned within the first episode of ‘The ICC Review’.
“He was speaking then about stepping away (from captaincy) from white-ball cricket and the way passionate he was to proceed on to be Test match captain. He simply liked and cherished that job and that publish a lot. When I heard it, I used to be actually, actually stunned.” But upon reflection of his personal expertise as captain, Ponting felt Kohli should have weighed in lots of elements earlier than his resolution.
“There is probably a shelf-life for worldwide cricket captains and even coaches. Virat’s been there for near seven years now. If there is a nation on the earth that is essentially the most tough to captain, it is in all probability India due to simply how widespread the sport is and the way a lot each single Indian likes to see the fortunes of the group.
“He is 33 years of age now and he’ll need to proceed enjoying for a couple of extra years I’m positive and have a crack at breaking some data that he’s not far off breaking.
“Maybe if he does that as a batter and without the extra responsibility of captaincy, it might make it a bit easier for him,” Ponting mentioned.
The legendary batter lauded the efforts of the Indian group underneath Kohli, even going as far as to say the group’s efforts have been extra “staggering” than that of Australia underneath his captaincy.
“It was extra of a staggering achievement for India than it was for us. When I took over, I took over a facet that had dominated world cricket for a very long time.
“If you think about India before Virat, it was about winning a lot of games at home and not winning quite as many overseas. The thing that improved most was India winning a few more games overseas…”
“There was a real focus placed on Test cricket by BCCI when Virat took over, and I think a lot of it has come from him as well – to focus more on Test cricket and winning more games home and away.”
Ponting mentioned given his Test file as captain, Kohli can stroll away from the function very happy with what he has achieved.
No different Indian skipper has captained India in additional Tests (68) or received extra matches (40) than Kohli. India misplaced simply 5 of the 24 collection underneath his captaincy.
At residence, India did not lose a single collection with Kohli as captain. In reality, they misplaced simply two out of 31 matches.
Away from residence, Kohli’s India received 16 out of 36 matches, with a powerful win share of 44.44, the best for an Indian or Asian captain who has led their group in at the very least 10 matches.
Ponting rated India’s 2-1 triumph within the 2018-19 Border-Gavaskar as Kohli’s biggest collection win as captain. It was that collection victory that broke India’s jinx — it was their first Test collection win in Australia.
Ponting backed his former Mumbai Indians team-mate Rohit to fill Kohli’s sneakers. He mentioned it was him who advised Rohit to steer Mumbai Indians when he needed to step down from that function after detached kind in 2013.
“The proof is within the pudding with what he has achieved at Mumbai Indians. He has been a really profitable chief there and has been when he has led India on a couple of events as properly.”
,
With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
