Dubai 31 August : Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting is hoping that the cricket world will witness talismanic India batter Virat Kohli at his best during the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in Australia in October and November.Kohli returned to the field after a hiatus of almost one month and a half and showed signs of some form in his 35-over match against Pakistan in his 100th T20I appearance, in which India beat Pakistan by five wickets in an epic match.
“First and foremost, it’s great to see him back in the race.It’s not a surprise, then, that he made it in an e-run chase.We’ve known that for a long time about him.His track record suggests he is at his best in the moment his team is trying to score runs.When I watched his runs and then read about his social media posts over the past couple of days, it was like he was in quite a dark spot.Like many of us men, he wasn’t willing to discuss it or discuss it.”
“It is possible that when he has begun to share his thoughts, or began to speak, it could have helped him relax somewhat and he began to feel more confident again.I hope we will see him back at his best in the World Cup.I’d like to have Virat arrive in this country (in Australia) and be one of the top athletes in the competition, but ensure that he doesn’t score a lot of runs in opposition to Australia in their games!” Ponting said Ponting on The ICC Review show.
On the day of India’s game against Pakistan, Kohli had said in an interview with the broadcasters Star Sports that he had been faking his high-intensity that he is well-known for in the field during his time of rough patches with the bat.Kohli has not made 100 runs in cricket internationally since the beginning of November, 2019.
Ponting said there were connections with his own struggle to form in the last few times of his professional career, which is the same time that Kohli is now.”I do not think I can really relate to the ‘intensity’ (comment).If things aren’t going as planned and you’re not scoring as many runs you were scoring and playing all of suddenly seems to be too difficult.
I kind of confronted this in the final couple of years of my career, when my career began to slow down quickly.It was almostlike, the harder I worked the more I deteriorated.”
“I was so focused and focused on doing things the right way I thought I had to be doing that to get the most out of myself But all I did was put the pressure on myself instead of playing the game in the same way as I have always did.I believe it could be a little of this getting in with Virat also.It’s human nature when things don’t go way you would like you press harder, push more, and the more you push, the more difficult it becomes.”
Ponting believes that it was crucial Kohli took a break from the field to reset his mind due to the busy schedule of cricket in the current era of cricket.”One thing I’ll mention about international cricketers and possibly especially with the current Indian players, is the extent of cricket they’re playing internationally as well as the IPL is that you can often fool yourself into thinking you’re feeling great and that you’re in good shape and have lots of energy.”
“Because when you’re exhausted, you need to remind yourself of that you’ll need to rise and go the next day.It’s only after you’ve put down the hammer and taken a few days off or you’ve got one week off that you realize how exhausted mentally and physically.”
“For such a person as Virat the situation was not way to take the week off.It’s also interesting that he has taken the month off to go on vacation and sort of gather his thoughts and get back to where we believe he is in the right place mentally.There are a lot of positive indicators there.”
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