Former Australia captain Ricky Pointing was “shocked” by Virat Kohli’s resolution to step down from Take a look at captaincy however instructed and hailed Kohli for his management abilities.
He additionally backed Rohit Sharma to do nicely as Kohli’s successor.
“Sure, it did truly (shock me)…I used to be shocked… In all probability the principle motive why was I had a chat and good catch-up with Virat in the course of the first a part of the IPL (2021) earlier than it received postponed,” Ponting stated within the first episode of ‘The ICC Assessment’.
“He was speaking then about stepping away (from captaincy) from white-ball cricket and the way passionate he was to proceed to be Take a look at match captain. He simply liked and cherished that job and that publish a lot. After I heard it, I used to be actually, actually shocked.” However upon reflection of his personal expertise as a captain, Ponting felt Kohli will need to have weighed in lots of components earlier than his resolution.
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“There’s doubtlessly 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 this planet that is essentially the most troublesome to captain, it’s most likely India due to simply how standard the sport is and the way a lot each single Indian likes to see the fortunes of the crew.
“He’s 33 years of age now, and he’ll need to proceed taking part in for a number of extra years, I’m certain and have a crack at breaking some data that he’s not far off breaking.
“Possibly if he does that as a batter and with out the additional duty of captaincy, it would make it a bit simpler for him,” Ponting stated.
Ponting lauded the efforts of the Indian crew beneath Kohli, even going as far as to say that the crew’s efforts had been extra “staggering” than that of Australia beneath his captaincy.
“It was extra of a staggering achievement for India than it was for us. After I took over, I took over a aspect that had dominated world cricket for a very long time.
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“If you concentrate on India earlier than Virat, it was about profitable a variety of video games at residence and never profitable fairly as many abroad. The factor that improved most was India profitable a number of extra video games abroad…”
“There was an actual focus positioned on Take a look at cricket by BCCI when Virat took over, and I believe a variety of it has come from him as nicely – to focus extra on Take a look at cricket and profitable extra video games residence and away.”
Ponting stated given his Take a look at report 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 Exams (68) or gained extra matches (40) than Kohli. India misplaced simply 5 of the 24 sequence beneath his captaincy.
At residence, India did not lose a single sequence with Kohli as captain. It misplaced simply two out of 31 matches.
Away from residence, Kohli’s India gained 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 crew in at the least 10 matches.
Ponting rated India’s 2-1 triumph within the 2018-19 Border-Gavaskar as Kohli’s biggest sequence win as captain. It was that sequence victory that broke India’s jinx — it was its first Take a look at sequence win in Australia.
Ponting backed his former Mumbai Indians teammate Rohit to fill Kohli’s sneakers.
“The proof is within the pudding with what he has executed at Mumbai Indians. He has been a really profitable chief there and has been when he has led India on a number of events as nicely.”