Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting is confident that Virat Kohli is going to flourish as a batsman going forward, having given up his Test captaincy recently.
Kohli announced an unforeseen resignation as India’s Test captain just a day after conceding a series loss to South Africa. Ponting, a 2-time World Cup-winning captain, said that he was “shocked” by Kohli’s decision because he believed Kohli was passionate about leading in the longest format after relinquishing his T20 captaincy and being removed as ODI skipper.
“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. He was talking then about stepping away (from captaincy) from white-ball cricket and how passionate he was to continue on to be Test match captain. He just loved and cherished that job and that post so much. When I heard it, I was really, really surprised,” Ponting said in the first episode of ‘The ICC Review’.
Ricky Ponting tries to understand Kohli’s call, pointing out that the Indian batter is 33-year-old and is approaching the last phase of his international career.
He asserted that Kohli would have wanted to be relieved of the immense pressure of leading the Indian Test team, and backs the Delhi-born to now make runs as prolifically as he used to until a couple of years ago.
“There is potentially a shelf-life for international cricket captains and even coaches. Virat’s been there for close to seven years now. If there’s a country in the world that’s the most difficult to captain, it’s probably India because of just how popular the game is and how much every single Indian loves to see the fortunes of the team,” the Australian said.
Virat Kohli has been sitting on 70 international centuries since November 2019. Ponting registered 71 tons for Australia.
“He is 33 years of age now and he will want to continue playing for a few more years I am sure and have a crack at breaking some records that he is 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 added.
India host West Indies in a 3-ODI series starting February 6, followed by 3 T20Is.
