Melbourne: A day after Ricky Ponting praised India's stand-in skipper Ajinkya Rahane's captaincy skills against Australia in the second Test, the Aussie great on Sunday (December 27, 2020) said that Virat Kohli will be the Indian captain as long as he wants to.
"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.
Australia's most capped international skipper added, "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 expressed that he doesn't think there'll be pressure from anywhere else for Kohli to do that but let's wait and see.
This is to be noted that India have won 14 of 20 completed Test series, losing four times (all away from home) under Virat Kohli's captaincy. The Kohli-led team also made history when they visited Australia in 2018 and won their first Test series on the Aussie soil.
Ponting also commented on Rahane's innings on day 2 of the second Test and said, "He's almost played a (Cheteshwar) Pujara-like innings."
Ponting added, "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 led from the front on day 2 and scored his 12th international century, second in Australia, as India held an 82-run lead when stumps was called due to rain. The visitors were at 277-5 following restricting the Kangaroos to 195-10 in 72.3 overs.
Another dominant day of Test cricket for #TeamIndia.
It was a day that is undoubtedly headlined by Captain @ajinkyarahane88, whose century (104* off 200) will go down as one of the best by an Indian captain on foreign soil.#TeamIndia 277/5 (Rahane 104*, Jadeja 40*) pic.twitter.com/zwuHWWHYjP
— BCCI (@BCCI) December 27, 2020
Ponting had earlier praised Rahane and 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."
Ajinkya Rahane is filling in for full-time skipper Kohli who is with wife Anushka Sharma for the birth of their first child.
