Australia have to try and break 'aggressive' Kohli and team’s momentum, says Ponting

AUSTRALIA GREAT Ricky Ponting recalled his experience of playing in India and urged his side to try and break Team India’s momentum if they want to win the four-match Test series, starting February 23. 

Ponting iterated Mike Hussey’s advice and asked the men from Down Under not to rile up India skipper Virat Kohli. The legendary batsman believes that it will be difficult for the Australian bowling attack to dismiss the Kohli if he gets aggressive and moves out of his comfort zone. In an interaction with Sydney Morning Herald, the 42-year-old explained,

“The one thing about Virat Kohli is whenever there’s any confrontation, he does get a little bit outside of his comfort zone. You can see that he gets ultra-aggressive, which may be a good thing for him or maybe good for the opposition. We will wait and see what happens. I think he’s a similar sort of character to me as well. He wears his heart on his sleeve. He’s pretty animated. He’s a very aggressive player. One thing I learnt about playing in India is the momentum that the home team can create, you have to try and stop that. Someone like Virat, you have to take his boundary-scoring areas away and make him score his runs in different areas or make him bat for a longer time to make his runs.”

Ponting termed Kohli as one of the best batsman to have played the ODI format but reckoned that it is too early to put him in the bracket of Test legends like Tendulkar, Lara and Kallis. 

“Is it too premature to call him the best ever? You can probably say that right now as far as his one-day cricket is concerned. His one-day record is outstanding and probably better than anybody that’s ever played the game given how many hundreds (27) he’s made but let’s give him a few years yet in the Test series side of things. It’s too early yet to be taking about him being one of the greats. I think the great players we always talk about – the Tendulkars, the Laras, the Kallises – those guys played 120, 130-200 Test matches. Virat’s not even halfway along that path.”

Ponting further added,

“Is he the best batsman in the world? Yeah, he probably is. I thought he was six or seven months ago and he’s probably taken it to another level since then.” 
 

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