Ricky Ponting- ICC World Test Championship FInal
Photo Credit: (Twitter)

Ricky Ponting has broken his silence on Virat Kohli stepping down as Indian captain across formats after the T20 World Cup. He stepped down as India’s T20I skipper and then was sacked as the ODI captain of the side. He also stepped down as Test captain after losing the Test series against South Africa. All these happened within a span of three to four months.

Talking to the ICC, Ricky Ponting that he was surprised in the manner in which Virat Kohli stepped down as India’s Test captain. With 40 wins from 68 games, he remains India’s most successful Test captain.

Virat Kohli
Virat Kohli. Photo Credit: (BCCI)

“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 realise 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” Ponting further said.

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The former Australian skipper further said that he was initially surprised at Kohli’s decision but then thought about the circumstances under which he stepped down as Australia’s captain.

“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” Ponting said.

Ponting concluded by saying that every captain has a shelf life and captaining an Indian team is a task of immense pressure keeping in mind the expectations from fans and supporters.

There is Shelf Life For Every International Captain: Ricky Ponting

Ricky Ponting
Image Source; Twitter

“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 love to see the fortunes of the Indian cricket team, whether they are good or bad. You weigh all those things up” concluded Ricky Ponting.

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Anshuman Roy is an author at Cricketaddictor. He has been working with the organization since January 2022 and he has written more than 6000 articles for the website.