Australia legend Ricky Ponting has branded Virat Kohli as a big-match player and finds it ‘funny’ that there are still debates in India over whether the batting superstar deserves a spot in team’s T20I set-up.
Kohli is currently representing Royal Challengers Bengaluru in IPL 2024 where with 708 runs from 14 innings, he’s the current top run-getter and leading the race to win the Orange Cap.
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However, he has faced some criticism for his strike-rate as compared to other top-order batters with new benchmarks being set in the ongoing season of IPL as 200-plus total become a norm rather than exception.
Kohli’s strike-rate of 155.60 though is the best he has managed for RCB in a single edition of IPL, an indication that the former captain is ready to adapt to the changing demands of the format.
“He (Kohli) is the first pick for me for India. So, class and experience like that, you can’t replace,” Ponting told ICC.
“It’s funny with Virat. I think people in India just always try to find a reason not to pick him or a reason why he’s maybe not as good as some of these other guys in the T20 game,” he added.
Kohli produced a masterful innings of 82 against Pakistan at the 2022 T20 World Cup to engineer a thrilling last-ball win.
“I remember having this chat and some other chats I did for the ICC about there’s some talk about Virat not being in their team only last year, but what happened when the big games come around, he was one of the guys who got the job done,” Ponting said.
Kohli has been opening for RCB this season but he has primarily batted at the no.3 spot for India. With captain Rohit Sharma set to open, it’s likely Kohli will partner him at the top but the presence of young Yashasvi Jaiswal who bats left-handed and has proven his credentials as a world-class opener complicates the task of the team management.
“They (selectors) have still got a decision to make (on the opening pair) because (Yashasvi) Jaiswal is in that squad and one thing they haven’t got a lot in their team is left-hand batters,” Ponting said.
“So they’ve got a decision to make with Jaiswal (batting position), but I’m pretty sure that they’ll go with Kohli and Rohit Sharma (as openers). 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,” he added.
Ponting though agrees that the T20 landscape has changed dramatically from what it was 3-4 years ago and teams now want their top-order batters to play impactful knocks rather than long innings.
“The mantra I think for the teams three or four years ago, was making sure that someone at the top of the order made 80 or 100, even if it took them 60 balls, it didn’t really matter,” Ponting said.
“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,” he added.
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