NEWS
Follow UsThe Indian selectors are in a fix to decide the next Test captain following Virat Kohli's resignation from the post after losing the South Africa series 2-1. While Rohit Sharma, as the vice-captain, might be picked, given his age, there is a section of former cricketers who believe KL Rahul might fit in the role. With Rishabh Pant being the only other long-term candidate, he might as well come into contention.
However, former Australian captain Ricky Ponting feels Rohit is an obvious choice unless the BCCI wants two different skippers for white-ball and red-ball cricket. In conversation with former cricketer Isa Guha on the first episode of The ICC Review, Ponting said: "I think the proof is in the pudding with what he has done at the Mumbai Indians (winning five IPL titles). He has been a very successful leader there and has been when he has led India on a few occasions as well.
"If I go back to what I said at the start about being on top of your game when you take over a captaincy role, then it is pretty hard to argue after what he has done with his Test cricket in the last 2-3 years. He has played as well as anybody in the world through that period of time, and we know how good he is as a white-ball player.
"They (BCCI) will have a decision to make what they want to do with their roles as well, whether they split roles or they want to keep the same captain for all formats."
Rohit didn't travel to South Africa because of an injury, and when Kohli was unavailable for the second Test, it was Rahul who took over the captaincy. Talking about other available options, Ponting said: "To be honest, I have worked with Ajinkya – he is just a great bloke, a very, very good player. He hasn't had his best period with the bat in Tests, but we saw what he can do leadership-wise in the series against Australia last summer.
"I don't know KL Rahul well – his name's been thrown around a little bit. All reports I hear about him is he is a terrific guy, and he's playing very well and starting to put together a really good Test record, particularly overseas which is impressive."
Ponting was quite surprised when Kohli resigned from Test captaincy. "Yes, it did actually (surprise me). Probably the main reason why is I had a chat and good catch-up with Virat during the first part of the IPL (2021) before it got postponed.
"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.
"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.
"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 loves to see the fortunes of the Indian cricket team, whether they are good or bad. You weigh all those things up."
The legendary batter lauded the efforts of the Indian team under Kohli, even going so far as to say the team's efforts were more "staggering" than that of Australia under his captaincy.
"It was more of a staggering achievement for India than it was for us. When I took over, I took over a side that had dominated world cricket for a long time. If you think about India before Virat, it was about winning a lot of games at home and not winning quite as many overseas. The thing that improved most was India winning a few more games overseas..."
"There was a real focus placed on Test cricket by BCCI when Virat took over, and I think a lot of it has come from him as well to focus more on Test cricket and winning more games home and away."
Ponting said given his Test record as captain, Kohli can walk away from the role very proud of what he has achieved. No other Indian skipper has captained India in more Tests (68) or won more matches (40) than Kohli. India lost just five of the 24 series under his captaincy.
At home, India didn't lose a single series with Kohli as captain. In fact, they lost just two out of 31 matches. Away from home, Kohli's India won 16 out of 36 matches, with an impressive win percentage of 44.44, the highest for an Indian or Asian captain who has led their team in at least 10 matches.
Ponting rated India's 2-1 triumph in the 2018-19 Border-Gavaskar as Kohli's greatest series win as captain. It was that series victory that broke India's jinx -- it was their first Test series win in Australia.
(With inputs from PTI)