Ricky Ponting reveals IPL 2021 chat with Virat Kohli, says THIS on India Test captaincy controversy

No other Indian skipper has captained India in more Tests (68) or won more matches (40) than Virat Kohli. India lost just five of the 24 series under his captaincy. 

Former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting has said that he is really surprised with Virat Kohli deciding to leave Test captaincy. Earlier this month, Kohli stood down as India’s Test skipper a day after the country suffered a 1-2 series defeat against South Africa in the three-match series.

Last year, the 33-year-old had also stepped down as T20I captain and then he was removed as the ODI leader after the selectors wanted one leader for white-ball formats. “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,” the official website of ICC quoted Ponting as saying.

When Ricky Ponting speaks, the cricket world listens.