IND vs AUS: Virat Kohli Will be Captain of India as Long as he Wants to – Ricky Ponting

Former Australia captain and legend Ricky Ponting feels that the stand-in captain of team India, Ajinkya Rahane has done a great job in Virat Kohli’s absence but he does not see anyone else take the place of the India skipper.

Virat Kohli, the regular captain of team India in all the three formats has headed back to India after playing the first Day-Night Test against Australia in Adelaide, where they suffered a humiliating 8 wicket loss.

Kohli took the paternity leave from the board to be with his wife Anushka Sharma who is going to give birth to their first child in January. Ajinkya Rahane will lead team India in Kohli’s absence for the rest of the Border Gavaskar Trophy.

“I think he’s done a great job to pick up the pieces from Adelaide with this team, lead really well in the field yesterday and you can see he’s playing like a captain now as well.

“He wants to play that captain’s knock; he wants to get a hundred in Virat’s absence and do the best thing he can to try and drag his country and his team back into this series,” Ponting told cricket.com.au.

Rahane, on day two of the Second Test against Australia played a brilliant knock for his side and smashed his 12th Test hundred and 2nd against Australia. He helped India get out of a precarious situation of 64/3 and end Day 2 on a much respectable 277/5 with a lead of 82 runs. Rahane remained unbeaten on 104 off 200 deliveries.

But the former Australia skipper expects Virat Kohli to be at the helm of the Indian side after the end of the series and says that he does not believe that there is any threat to the skipper’s role.

“Virat will be captain of India as long as he wants to, but if he thinks standing down is going to make him an even better player, then that’s a scary thing for world cricket.

“I’m not doubting Kohli’s captaincy skills or credentials at all, I’m just saying it’s going to take something special to pick up the pieces and Rahane’s been able to do that so far.

“I don’t think there’ll be pressure from anywhere else for Kohli to do that but let’s wait and see,” Ponting added.