Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has backed Rohit Sharma to be the successor of Virat Kohli as India’s Test captain. Ponting believes that his IPL record with Mumbai Indians says it all and he did well in whatever opportunities he got to lead the Indian team.
Notable that Virat Kohli stepped down from the test captaincy after the series loss against South Africa. Since then rumours and speculations have been floating around about who should take over the job as India’s captain in the red-ball format.
Rohit Sharma, who was already named captain in the white-ball format, is the frontrunner to take the role in Test cricket as well however there are talks that India might go with the split captaincy route to manage his workload.
Rohit Sharma has already been named white-ball captain for India
Speaking to England former player Isa Guha, Ponting opined that his successful stint with his IPL franchise Mumbai Indians is good enough reason to back him as a leader. Mumbai Indians won 5 IPL titles under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma.
“I think the proof is in the pudding with what he has done at the Mumbai Indians since that moment on. 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,” Ricky Ponting.
Ponting also discussed other options. He feels that Ajinkya Rahane could have been another option in Test cricket but his recent form hasn’t been great. Rahane led India in the historic series win in Australia last season.
“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,” Ponting said.
“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,” he added.