Ricky Ponting, the famous Australian cricketer, revealed that he does not get why Indians are trying to “find reasons” for not selecting Virat Kohli in their national team when he said that the former captain who has great charisma would be his “first pick” for the T20 World Cup in America.
Despite concerns about his strike rate at the top of the order, Kohli leads run table with 708 from 14 innings thanks to his brilliant performances so far in this IPL.
He (Kohli) is India’s first pick for me. Therefore, such class and experience are irreplaceable.
“Therefore it’s always interesting with Virat. These other guys can go in there and play their way.”
Speaking to ICC, the ex-Australian Captain and Delhi Capitals’ Head Coach Ricky Ponting stated that people from India often find a reason why they can’t take him or what makes him worse than others in T20 game.
Next month in West Indies and USA during T20 World Cup, Ponting believes that opener should be Kiwi in partnership with skipper Rohit Sharma because later on high run rate can be set by players like Suryakumar Yadav among others.
“Because (Yashasvi) Jaiswal is part of that squad they still have a decision to make (on opening pair) and one thing they haven’t got much of left hand batters on their side,” Ponting added.
“He can play his role at the top. And if you’ve got the right guys around him scoring (like) Suryakumar (Yadav)… Rohit Sharma’s going to have a high strike rate. These other guys can go in there and play their way.”
Kohli has scored eight centuries overall while also hitting five half-tons this season as six successive victories propelled PCB into the playoffs.
His strike rate of 155.60 this season has attracted a lot of attention, though it is the highest in his 17 years playing for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru, indicating that he is adjusting and striving to increase it further.
“It doesn’t matter if you take 60 balls or 70 balls so long as someone at the top order can make 80 or 100,” was perhaps what most teams were thinking some three or four years back.
“I think it’s sort of shifting now to be more of a strike rate-based game where you can have a massive impact on a game with a 40 off 15 balls rather than getting an 80 off 55 balls sort of thing” Ponting added.
Kohli played a crucial part in India’s campaign at the World Cup in Australia last year scoring an unbeaten 82 against Pakistan and half century against England in semi-finals. Ponting said that when it comes to crunch moments, nobody else was trustworthy than the veteran batter.
I remember having this chat and some other various conversations, which I had for the ICC on Virat absence from their team last year. However, when it mattered most, he was one of the guys who made it across the line.
