India vs Australia | Ricky Ponting rallies in support of Virat Kohli

Former Australian captain, Ricky Ponting, was renowned for his gritty attitude and his no-mercy approach to the game, be it on the cricket pitch or off it. However, the recent incident involving Indian skipper Virat Kohli has not gone down well with the Aussie legend who offered his support to his Indian counterpart.

The Indian captain was booed by a small section of the 30,000 spectators during series opener at the Adelaide Cricket Ground. After being dismissed by Australian spinner Nathan Lyon 34, Kohli faced some unwelcoming chants as he was walking back to the pavilion in the Indian second innings on day three of the Test. Ponting was highly critical of the behavior of the home crowd as he added that such incidents need to stop.

“I don’t like seeing it at all. It didn’t worry me as a player when it happened (to me) in England a couple times. You’ve almost got to accept it as acknowledgement for what you’ve done in the game. But I’d rather not see that happen at all.

“It’ll be water off a duck’s back (for Kohli), I’m sure. He’s probably had worse things happen to him on a cricket field, I would have thought, than getting booed by a couple of spectators as he walks on. If anything, it might have steeled him a little bit more. He (was) hardly playing a shot (early in his innings) and he looked like he wanted to really ground the Aussies into the deck,” Ponting told Cricket Australia’s official website. 

This was in stark contrast to the reception that the 30-year old Indian had received on day one as crowds flocked to see the hard-hitting batsman and gave him a king’s welcome. 

Meanwhile, Indian Pacer Jasprit Bumrah refused to read too much into the incident as he added that, “I don’t think all these things are important to us. We can’t control what is not in our hands. They can do whatever they want. As long as we are doing well, we are happy.”