Virat Kohli has stepped down as the captain of the Indian cricket team from all three formats recently. He first decided to step down from the T20I captaincy but was removed from the ODI captaincy. And then afterwards he has now also stepped down from Test captaincy.
Legendary Australian batsman and captain Ricky Ponting has now heaped praise on Virat Kohli. He rates Virat Kohli’s achievements as a captain higher than his achievements as the Australian captain.
Ricky Ponting said, as quoted by the ICC: “It was more of a staggering achievement for India than it was for us.”
“When I took over, I took over a side that had dominated world cricket for a 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 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,” he added.
Ricky Ponting praises Virat Kohli’s achievements as the captain of the Indian cricket team
The former Australian captain further added: “Yes, it did actually (surprise me). 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. Obviously, the Indian Test team had achieved a lot under his leadership. When I heard it, I was really, really surprised.”
“You only have to watch him on the field for an hour of the day’s play to realize how passionate he is about that job and the role, and how much he wants the team to win and how much he wants the best for Indian cricket. 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.”
“So I think 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 Indian cricket team, whether they are good or bad. You weigh all those things up.”
Further talking about Kohli, Ponting said: “The other thing is there was really was a real focus placed on Test cricket by the 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.”
“Given his Test record as captain, he can walk away from the role very, very proud of what he has achieved.”
| Player | Span | Mat | Won | Lost | Tied | Draw | W/L | %W | %L |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GC Smith (ICC/SA) | 2003-2014 | 109 | 53 | 29 | 0 | 27 | 1.82 | 48.62 | 26.6 |
| AR Border (AUS) | 1984-1994 | 93 | 32 | 22 | 1 | 38 | 1.45 | 34.4 | 23.65 |
| SP Fleming (NZ) | 1997-2006 | 80 | 28 | 27 | 0 | 25 | 1.03 | 35 | 33.75 |
| RT Ponting (AUS) | 2004-2010 | 77 | 48 | 16 | 0 | 13 | 3.00 | 62.33 | 20.77 |
| CH Lloyd (WI) | 1974-1985 | 74 | 36 | 12 | 0 | 26 | 3.00 | 48.64 | 16.21 |
| V Kohli (INDIA) | 2014-2022 | 68 | 40 | 17 | 0 | 11 | 2.35 | 58.82 | 25 |
Read: ICC Test Rankings: Australia beats India to become the No. 1 team in Test cricket
