Ricky Ponting explains why he was “shocked” when Virat Kohli announced his resignation as captain of the Test team.

Ricky Ponting has been one of the best batters in history of cricket. In an interview with Ricky Ponting, Virat Kohli revealed that he asked him to leave the white ball format during the IPL 2021 itself.

The Indian captain stepped down the day after the Asian giants lost their series in South Africa, in January which raised quite a few eyebrows. After the World T20, Kohli was sacked as India’s ODI captain. In September last year, Kohli had stated that he wanted to continue as the ODI and Test team captain. During a dramatic turn of events during which Kohli alleged lack of communication between the Board of Control for Cricket in India and himself, he decided to resign as Test captain.

Virat Kohli is the most successful Test captain of the Indian cricket team. Over the course of his seven-year tenure, the team won 40 out of 68 tests, achieving the No. 1 ranking and reaching the final of the inaugural World Test Championship. During Kohli’s tenure, India won their first-ever series in Australia and led England 2-1 in an incomplete series in England.

Ricky Ponting said Virat Kohli should be proud of his accomplishments as Test captain, particularly the way in which he prioritized the longest format in the T20 era. Kohli’s emphasis on overseas Test wins with India is viewed by Ponting as one of India’s greatest successes in cricket. Former Australian player Ricky Ponting said he was surprised that Virat Kohli decided to leave the Test captaincy, since their conversation during the IPL was quite different Considering his record as captain, he can retire very, very proud of what he has accomplished.

“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 the most was India winning a few more games overseas, and that’s something that he and all of the Indian cricket have to be really proud of,” Ponting told ICC.

The other thing is there was really was a real focus placed on Test cricket by the 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,” said the Australian.