Virat Kohli will be India’s captain as long as he wants to be: Ricky Ponting

Former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting believes that Virat Kohli should be India’s captain as long as he wants to be and this statement comes a day after he hailed Ajinkya Rahane’s leadership skills for the way he handled the Indian bowlers on the first day of the second Test at MCG.

“Virat will be captain of India as long as he wants to, but if he thinks standing down is going to make him an even better player, then that’s a scary thing for world cricket,” Ricky Ponting was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.

“I’m not doubting Kohli’s captaincy skills or credentials at all, I’m just saying it’s going to take something special to pick up the pieces and Rahane’s been able to do that so far,” Ponting added.

Ponting doubts that there will be pressure from anyone on Kohli to give up captaincy but only time will tell whether that is going to happen.

Under Virat Kohli’s leadership, the Indian Test team has won 14 out of the 20 Test series. They have lost four and all of them have been away from home. However, they did create history when they won the Test series on Aussie soil for the first time in the 2018-19 tour.

Ponting also went on to opine about Rahane’s innings on Day 2 of the second Test match.

“He’s almost played a (Cheteshwar) Pujara-like innings. No thrills, he’s hit very few boundaries but he’s just continually backing his defence and trying to wear the Australian bowlers down. I think the Australians haven’t made him cover drive enough. I think they’ve been a little bit short and they’ve plugged that cover region.”

Rahane scored the 12th century of his Test career, the second in Australia, as India ended Day 3 on a score of 277/5, with a 82-run lead over Australia.

Speaking about his captaincy earlier, Ponting had said, “His captaincy has been brilliant so far. Rahane’s field placements, bowling changes have all been pretty much spot on. With captaincy, making bowling changes and changing the field, you need guys to be able to execute well.”