“I will be fearing playing an Indian team that has Virat Kohli in it”: Ricky Ponting reckons Virat Kohli still instills fear in the opposition as questions regarding his place in India T20 World Cup squad intensify

Ricky Ponting reckons Virat Kohli still has it in him to hit his form back, despite a prolonged patch of poor form in international cricket.

A rare off-season for his franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the IPL this year, perhaps acted as the one bad omen that has prevented Virat Kohli from returning back to his dominating batting form which the cricketing fraternity has been used to for so many years now.

While the lean patch of form continued, the 33-year-old also lost his team India captaincy from the ODI and the Test format as well during this phase.

The prolonged slump in form has meant that fans and former cricketers like Kapil Dev, Venkatesh Prasad, and Virender Sehwag have explicitly or otherwise questioned his place in the team, and the 2021 T20 World Cup squad in particular.

However, the champion batter has also found allies in Usman Khawaja, Kevin Pietersen, Shoaib Akhtar and now former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting as well.

Ricky Ponting reckons Virat Kohli still instills fear in the opposition

Voicing his opinions on Kohli’s recent form in the ICC Review Show on Wednesday, Australian legendary batter Ricky Ponting has back the former to come good in the lead up to the imminent ICC T20 World Cup in Australia.

As per Ponting, Kohli still instills fear in the opposition camp, and he would be fearing a team that has Virat Kohli in it, as opposed to the one that doesn’t.

“I think if I was an opposition captain or an opposition player, I will be fearing playing an Indian team that has Virat Kohli in it, more than I would be one that doesn’t have him in it. I know there have been some challenges for him, it’s been a difficult time. But every great player that I have seen in this game has been through it at some stage, whether that’s a batsman or a bowler, they have all been through it. And somehow, the best (players) find a way to rebound and respond, and it’s only a matter of time before Virat does that,” Ponting said on The ICC Review Show.

Virat Kohli had raised his standards so high that now even an average of 36.75 is looking bad. It’s not that he is terribly out of form but only failing to convert scores into centuries like he used to do in the past. He still has 9 fifties in last 20 innings in ODIs. #EngvInd pic.twitter.com/TLuJCDbrlR

— Mazher Arshad (@MazherArshad) July 17, 2022

Ponting further added that he should be batting at his usual no.3 spot in the order, and is against the idea of pushing him up the order, as the move would not only make him more unsettled, but would also ‘make him feel that people are worried about him’.