Former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting, has backed the star batter Virat Kohli to emulate his white-ball comeback in the game’s longest format despite Kohli’s troubles in Test cricket. In the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy match against Australia, Kohli, who broke a three-year century drought last year during the Asia Cup, has scored just 111 runs across five innings. Ponting asserts that “great players usually find a way” to return and expresses confidence that Kohli will quickly regain his best form.
I have often emphasised to Kohli that top players always find a way. He may currently be going through a bit of a dry spell and may not be scoring the runs that we all want him to, but he is also realistic. You are fairly aware of this yourself while you are batting and having trouble scoring runs. Because I know he will recover, I am not worried about this, Ponting remarked on ICC Review.
Ponting described the pitches as “an terrible misery” when discussing the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, adding that it would be difficult to judge any batter on the basis of this series.
“I am not examining anyone’s performance throughout the course of the series because it has been a complete nightmare for hitters. By winning the third Test match after losing the previous two, Australia has accomplished an amazing feat. As everyone is aware, batting has been tremendously challenging. And it wasn’t just the turn; it was also the irregular bounce, which causes you to lose faith in the wicket and, if that happens, forces you to constantly guess, which makes batting very challenging “he added.”
India’s fourth and final Test against Australia, which begins on March 9, will put Kohli’s performance under scrutiny once more.
