Brett Lee explains why ‘Virat Kohli is similar to Ricky Ponting’

Virat Kohli is believed to be one of the modern-day greats, Ricky Ponting was one of the most successful Australia captains

credit : DNA India

New Delhi : Former Australia fast bowler Brett Lee believes that the current India captain Virat Kohli is similar to former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting. While Kohli is believed to be one of the modern-day greats, Ponting was one of the most successful Australia captains. Ponting led his team to two ODI World Cup wins in 2003 and 2007. Ponting, much like Kohli, had a winning mentality, and hated losing each and every game.

“Everyone’s got different styles of captaincy. If you see Ricky Ponting and Virat Kohli, you could say there are some similarities between their captaincy styles. They’ve got that raw aggression, but it’s not necessarily over the top,” Brett Lee told Times of India.

The former Aussie paceman went on to explain how styles of captaincy of Kohli and Ponting is different to MS Dhoni and Sourav Ganguly. “I played against Dhoni and Ganguly. They are once again different captains. They’ve got a different, more of a laid-back style but effective. So, you don’t have to be a captain that’s aggressive. You don’t have to be laid back. You should do whatever works for you and whatever to get the best out of your players.

“There have been times where every captain’s gone over the top from every nation. But I’ve enjoyed watching Kohli’s captaincy. Because real passion comes through. He wants to do really well for the team.”

“But there are guys who are great team managers in terms of the way they manage their talent amongst the team. Because that’s all a captain is all about. The captain should be a good leader. People and players should look up to them and respect them and these guys (Ganguly, Dhoni, Kohli) have definitely got that,” Lee added.

He also said: “Apart from his (Kohli) captaincy, he does well with the bat personally. He is the same as Ricky Ponting. He had that real powerful aggression but not too much. There’s a nice balance, I think. They are pretty similar when it comes to captaincy.

“And also, they’ve got a great ability to read the players. So, you think about Ponting the way he had set the fields, very attacking fields, I see the same In Kohli. Kohli is happy to attack,” the cricketer-turned-commentator added.

Meanwhile, India are set to tour Australia in December this year, where they will play a four-match Test series. India had won the four-match series 2-1 the last time they had travelled Down Under in December 2018.

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