Kohli has a big ego: Ponting

Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has given advice to the Australian team to negate the threat of Indian captain Virat Kohli. He believes that Kohli can be rattled and he has a big ego and likes to score freely. So he feels that by bowling tight stuff in the beginning, Australia can trouble him.

Ponting’s gameplan for Kohli

The former Australia cricketer explained the strategy to keep Kohli quiet. He believes that if the ball is not moving, then Kohli is going to be really hard to get out. With someone like him who likes to score freely, Ponting believes that Kohli is obviously got a big ego but there’s other things Australia can do.

He noted that Australia can put a few fielders out early on, don’t let him get any boundaries. Maybe don’t go as aggressive at him early on and try to bowl lots of tight, consistent stuff.

The former Aussie cricketer pointed out that Kohli likes to run the ball down to third man a lot as well, so maybe just play around with some guys in different areas which might just get inside his head as to what Australia is trying to do.

Go back and look who had success against Kohli in past: Ponting

Ponting stated that the first thing he would be doing is going back and looking at how anyone has stopped the Indian skipper in the past and who has had the most success against Virat and why.

According to Ponting the first one that comes to mind is someone like a James Anderson, who probably had the most success against him. From what he has watched over the years, Ponting feels that Anderson seems to trouble him the most.

Most Runs in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy tournaments among the current players:

1. Steve Smith – 1429 in 20 Inns
2. Virat Kohli – 1322 in 27 Inns
3. Murali Vijay – 1275 in 24 Inns
4. Che Pujara – 1101 in 22 Inns
5. David Warner – 1081 in 30 Inns#StatsIndeed #AUSvIND

— CricIndeed (@CricIndeed) December 1, 2018