“The most courageous thing to do is walk away from that”: Ricky Ponting lauds Virat Kohli’s decision to take break off from Cricket to bring lost focus back in his game

As former India skipper Virat Kohli celebrates his 34th birthday today, the Cricket experts and fans in particular, most of who had even started questioning his place in the Indian T20 side not too long ago, sang words of his praises for being the legend that he is in the sport.

Having said that, this particular aspect of human nature is not something novel. When someone like a Virat Kohli goes century-less for around three years across formats in international Cricket, nothing less, not even a half-century is accepted as a success as it still falls short of the standards he has set for himself.

Thus, despite having the self-belief to trust his process and bank on his ability, Kohli took the bold decision to have around a month-long break from the sport. He spent some quality time with his family, went on a vacation, did not touch his bat all this while, and returned back on the field rejuvenated and with a new perspective and realization about his game, and himself at large.

In an interaction with Star Sports during the Asia Cup 2022 in August, Kohli even admitted to have been trying to fake his intensity on the field with all the talks around his dip in form and century drought as vocal as ever.

Ricky Ponting lauds Virat Kohli’s decision to take a month-long break from Cricket

Just a few days after his aforementioned interaction with Star Sports, the 34-year-old not only smashed his long-awaited 71st international century, but also brought up his maiden T20I century during India’s last match of Asia Cup 2022 against Afghanistan.

Post this knock, King Kohli has just not looked back. At present, he is the leading run-scorer in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2022, batting at an unbelievable average of 220.0.

Legendary Australian skipper and batter Ricky Ponting, who has dealt with similar reality checks in his international career as well, remarks Kohli’s decision to take break from the game for an entire month, a ‘courageous’ one.

“When a certain formula has worked so well for so long, the most courageous thing you can to do is to walk away from that. And for Virat to do that, he also knew he needed to, but it certainly worked for him as well,” stated Ponting.

Ponting also remarked that the usual reaction to a dip in form or when not batting the way one would like to is to put in much more hard work. But, that is not how, as Ponting explains, things work in Cricket.

“One thing I’ve learnt about champion players, in this game in particular, is that you never write them off.”

Ricky Ponting always believed in Virat Kohli’s excellence ✨@BYJUS | #T20WorldCup pic.twitter.com/wyWl3II0bj

— ICC (@ICC) November 5, 2022

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