Ricky Ponting in awe of Virat Kohli’s World Cup batting as stars struggle
One man has set the T20 World Cup alight and Virat Kohli’s stunning form has put his superstar peers in the shade.
David Warner has battled and even Pakistan superstar Babar Azam has failed to get going at the T20 World Cup, and their countries’ fortunes are on a knife-edge going into the final weekend of pool games.
Both Warner and Azam were expected to star at the tournament as batters at the peak of their power.
Indian megastar Virat Kohli entered the tournament at the other end of the spectrum, with some questioning his value to the team despite his status among the all-time top run scorers in the shortest form of the game.
The criticism was not only strange but seriously unjustified given that “King Kohli” has powered his way to a tournament-high 220 runs in four innings, having only been dismissed once.
He started the tournament with a matchwinning MCG innings that World Cup winning former Australian captain Ricky Ponting said no other player in the Indian line-up could have achieved.
Kohli’s two sixes in the penultimate over, and another in the final over, as part of his unbeaten 82 off just 53 balls produced an unforgettable win.
It was the mark of a champion and reason enough for Ponting to believe Kohli, who has more international T20 runs than anyone in history, is the man who could take India all the way.
“He’s not just done that once or twice, he’s done that probably 20 times in the IPL and probably the same amount of times for India and not only in T20,” Ponting said at the MCG this week.
“I doubt if there was another player in that side that could get them over the line at the end in that situation.
“The T20 game I think is a is a game for the older, smarter sort of minds, people that have been there and done it all before and experienced all before and probably no one in any cricket has experienced more success than Virat Kohli.
“So as slim as the chances were the other night, I was sitting on the couch watching with eight balls to go with him on strike, I still had this feeling that he was gonna pull something out of the hat and he did.
“And quite often you know a little moment like that can have a really big impact on a team right the way through the tournament.”
Kohli has three half-centuries in four tournament innings, all not out, and despite the conjecture over the 33-year-old’s place in the team, Ponting said he was clearly its most important batter as India seeks World Cup glory.
“I‘ve been on record for the last few months talking about how important I felt it was that India did stick with Virat coming into a big tournament like this,” Ponting said.
“You need experienced star players playing well and standing up in big moments if you’re going to win, and that’s what I said about Virat at the start and I think we saw that first hand with the first game against Pakistan.
“You never write champion players off and I think the bigger the moment, the more likely those champion players are to get the job done
“India probably haven’t been at their best yet, but Virat has been very, very good.
“He’s now the leading run scorer in the history of T20 cricket and I think if India go on to progress and actually win, they need they need him playing well.”
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