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Ricky Ponting, Virat Kohli (Image source: Twitter)
Virat Kohli's decision to step down as India's Test captain took the world by storm. Moreover, he announced it just a day after India had lost the three-match Test series against South Africa by 1-2 under his leadership. Thus, the absolute suddenness of his decision shocked the entire cricket fraternity.
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Besides, Kohli is statistically India's greatest skipper in the longest format of the game. As a matter of fact, he has the fourth-most number of Test wins as a captain in the history of cricket (40). Ricky Ponting, who happens to have the second-most number of Test wins, recently commented on the 33-year-old quitting the Test captaincy.
The legend said that he was "very, very surprised" when Kohli announced his decision. Pointing revealed that he had a chat with the Indian batter in March-April 2021. He then said that the Bangalore player told him how much he loved the role of leading India in the longest format of the game.
"Yes, it did actually (surprise me). Probably the main reason why was I had a chat and good catch-up with Virat during the first part of the IPL (2021) before it got postponed. He was talking then about stepping away (from captaincy) from white-ball cricket and how passionate he was to continue on to be Test match captain," said Ricky Ponting, as quoted by India Today.
The former Australian captain also spoke about Kohli's passion for leading India in red-ball cricket. He mentioned the fact that the Delhi batter loved playing Test cricket. Further on, Ponting also spoke about his superb record as India's red-ball skipper.
"He just loved and cherished that job and that post so much. Obviously, the Indian Test team had achieved a lot under his leadership. When I heard it, I was really, really surprised. You only have to watch him on the field for an hour of the day's play to realise how passionate he is about that job and the role, and how much he wants the team to win and how much he wants the best for Indian cricket," he added.