On Wednesday, cricket legend Ricky Ponting of Australia said Virat Kohli made the correct decision by taking a month off from the sport. The former Indian captain Kohli scored his first international half-century since a 52 against the West Indies in a T20I in Kolkata on February 18 of this year, following up his 35 against Pakistan in India’s Asia Cup opener with a composed 44-ball 59 not out against Hong Kong on Wednesday.
The two-time World Cup champion captain Ponting expressed his hope for his return to form and participation in the World Cup on the ‘ICC Review’.
“Make sure he doesn’t score many runs against Australia when they play! I’d prefer to see Virat come out here (in Australia) and be one of the top players in the tournament!”
Ponting made his remarks following India’s Sunday five-wicket victory against Pakistan.
After taking a month off from the sport, Kohli returned and smashed 35 runs off of 34 balls against his old foes.
Ponting remarked, “First and foremost, nice to see him back among the runs.
Ponting thinks it was critical that Kohli took a long vacation to regroup.
“Because even when you’re exhausted, you have to remind yourself that you still have to wake up and play the next day. You don’t realise how physically and psychologically exhausted you are until you’ve stopped and taken a few days off or a week off.
It was useless for someone like Virat to take a week off. There are several encouraging signals there, Ponting said, including the fact that he took that month off to travel, regroup, and come back to where we believe he is mentally.