Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Jan 31: Ricky Ponting, the legendary Australian batsman, said Virat Kohli should be proud of his achievements as Test captain, particularly the way he emphasized the longest format in the era of T20 cricket.
One of the biggest success stories in Indian cricket, according to Ponting, is what Kohli accomplished with India, emphasizing overseas Test wins.
During his 7-year tenure, Virat Kohli was India’s most successful Test captain, winning 40 out of 68 Tests and leading the team to the No. 1 ranking and the final of the first World Test Championship. India has never lost a Test series at home under Kohli, and they have won their first-ever series in Australia, leading England 2-1 in an unfinished series in England.
When Virat Kohli stepped down as India’s Test captain in January, a day after the Asian powers lost a Test series in South Africa, he raised a few eyebrows. Kohli stated in September of last year that he wished to stay as India’s ODI and Test captain, however he was fired as ODI captain following the T20 World Cup. Kohli decided to resign as Test captain after a dramatic turn of events in which he claimed a lack of communication between him and the Board of Control for Cricket in India.
“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 the most was India winning a few more games overseas, and that’s something that he and all of the Indian cricket have to be really proud of,” said Ponting ICC.
Meanwhile, Ponting stated that he had a conversation with Virat Kohli in March-April 2021, during which the India captain discussed resigning white-ball captaincy with him.
He did say, though, that he was “very, very startled” when Kohli announced his decision to step down as India’s Test captain, admitting that Kohli had told him how much he enjoyed the post during their 2021 conversation.
However, the former World Cup-winning skipper said he understands Kohli’s decision to relinquish control of the Test team.
“Yes, it did actually (surprise me). Probably the main reason why was I had a chat and good catch-up with Virat during the first part of the IPL (2021) before it got postponed,” Ponting said.
“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. Obviously, the Indian Test team had achieved a lot under his leadership. When I heard it, I was really, really surprised,” he added.
“I was shocked, but then I started thinking about other things, even my own time as captain. I have gone on record and said that I probably think I played a couple of years longer than I should have in hindsight. I think I might have been captain for a couple of years longer than I should have,” he further added.
