“I’m surprised that he took it”: Ricky Ponting exclaims Rahul Dravid’s decision to become Team India head coach surprised him

Ricky Ponting exclaims Rahul Dravid’s decision to take up the job offer to become the head coach of Team India was surprising for him

The Indian Cricket Team has finally commenced its new era with Rahul Dravid taking over the charge as the Head Coach with a 3-match T20I series against the 2021 T20 World  Cup runner-ups- New Zealand.

With Rohit Sharma taking the responsibility as the new skipper of the team in the T20 format, the duo started off on a winning note by defeating the Black Caps by 5 wickets in the first T20I of the aforementioned series at Jaipur’s Sawai Mansingh Stadium on November 17.

Rahul Dravid as coach and VVS Laxman as head of the NCA are excellent appointments, not just because they were great cricketers but because they have an outstanding work ethic, love Indian cricket deeply, are givers and, as important as anything else, are very honest people.

— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) November 18, 2021

While the Indian Cricket fans and experts have expressed their happiness and joy ever since Dravid has taken up the coaching responsibility, former Australia skipper- Ricky Ponting has expressed his amazement with the former agreeing to take the coaching decision.

Ricky Ponting exclaims Rahul Dravid’s decision surprised him

The former Aussie skipper has expressed his surprise at Dravid’s decision not because he has any doubts on his coaching abilities, but because he has agreed to take up such a challenging job despite having a young family back home.

Actually, I’m surprised that Dravid has taken it up as well. There was a lot of chat about how happy he was in the Under- 19 role he had. I’m not sure about his family life but I’m sure he has got young kids. So I’m surprised that he took it but  but as I said, the people I spoke to were sure they got the right person so they were probably able to get Dravid to do it,” Ponting said on the Grade Cricketers Podcast.

Ponting also revealed that he was approached with the Team India head coach offer, but he had to turn it down.

I had a couple of conversations with some people during the IPL about it (the head coach position). The people I spoken to were pretty hell-bent to find a way to make it work. The first thing I said was that I can’t give that much time, that means I can’t coach in the IPL,” he added.