Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has extended his backing for the struggling Indian superstar Virat Kohli. He stated to The ICC Review that if India were to play their first T20 World Cup match next week, he would play Kohli in his usual no. 3 spot.
“If I was an opposition captain or an opposition player, I would be fearing playing an Indian team that has Virat Kohli in it, more than I would be one that doesn’t have him in it,”
he said.
Ponting understands that every player goes through a difficult phase at some point in career, but he expects Kohli to bounce back like great players often do.
“I know there have been some challenges for him, it’s been a difficult time. But every great player that I have seen in this game has been through it at some stage.
And somehow, the best find a way to rebound and respond, and it’s only a matter of time before Virat does that.”
Kohli’s form has been the biggest talking point when it comes to Indian cricket. The Indian batter, who has 70 international centuries to his name, hasn’t scored a century in any of the formats since November 2019. His T20 returns are the most concerning and have cast doubts over his place in the Indian team for the upcoming T20 World Cup.
He struggled to get going in the IPL 2022, ending up with a strike rate of 115 – the lowest among the batters to have played minimum 250 balls. In the recently concluded series against England, Virat played two T20Is and only managed 1 & 11. Ponting, however, believes India should persist with Kohli as his upside is bigger than any of the replacement options.
“If I was India, I would keep pushing with him, because I know the upside. If they actually get him back confident and playing as well as he can, that upside is better than most. So I’d just wait for him to flick the switch and start scoring runs again.”
The Aussie great thinks India should start the tournament with Kohli instead of playing someone else and bringing him back in the latter stages.
There is a thought that moving Kohli to open the innings would help him find some form, but Ponting said you can’t make everything about one player. You have to find the right balance, which can’t be achieved by moving players up and down.
“They probably should be trying to find new ways to get him back into the form and help him out but that [giving him the opening spot] quite often comes at the expense of someone else as well.”
India are set to play three ODIs and five T20Is against West Indies in the Caribbean, and Kohli has been rested from the tour. Apart from these five games, India don’t have any T20Is scheduled ahead of the World Cup in October.
