Revealed: Why Ricky Ponting backed Virat Kohli to turn around form slump

Former Australia skipper Ponting backed Kohli to rediscover his brilliant best even while the India right-hander was struggling for runs and had gone almost three years without an international ton.

Speaking on The ICC Review in July 2022, Ponting urged India selectors to persist with an out-of-form Kohli in the run-in to the T20 World Cup and for the Super 12 stage in Australia.

Now, the two-time World Cup-winning captain has revealed why he was sure Kohli could turn around his form slump and again shine bright on the biggest stage.

"He's been a champion player of the game in all three formats for a long period of time," Ponting said.

"One thing I've learnt about champion players, in this game in particular, is you just never write them off. They always tend to find a way, particularly when it matters most, to dig deep enough and find a way to get a job done.

"If you wind the clock back about a week, start of this tournament; India, Pakistan, right here at the MCG - that was what I thought might happen.

"Virat rolling the clock back a little bit, playing a match-winning knock, being man of the match in what I think is one of the best sporting spectacles that I've ever seen."

Kohli ended his 1,021-day century drought with a stunning 122* from 61 balls when opening for India in a T20I against Afghanistan at the Asia Cup in September, but quickly returned to his preferred first drop.

The former India captain has already amassed 220 runs batting at three to be the leading scorer at the T20 World Cup and has only been dismissed once in four innings.

Ponting was confident Kohli’s experience would also be crucial to India’s chances of making an impact at the event.

"In that number three slot, let him feel comfortable, let him work his way into the tournament,” Ponting said.

"I've also learned about the T20 game over the years that I've been involved, is it's more of an older man's game, or older person's game, than a young man's game.

“Just with the knowledge and the know-how and the expertise in situations like Virat has been confronted with a couple of times.

"They've done it before, and they tend to find a way to get it done more often than not.

"India now, I think, are reaping the rewards of keeping him there and if they go on to the next stage then I'm sure he'll produce something big in one of the finals as well.”

The Australia legend also gave an insight into how Kohli might make the most of his recent form struggles, based on Ponting’s experiences across 17 years playing at the top level.

While Kohli has said taking time away from the game recently helped him refresh, Ponting believes the support of family and teammates would also have been pivotal in his return to form.

"(It’s) a great learning experience for Virat as a cricket person, to actually get to a point in his career when he had to change, had to do something different,” Ponting said.

"We know he's always been a really hard worker, he's always been fit, always looked after his diet and been a great trainer. That worked for him up until a certain period of time where he had to look elsewhere and find other ways to get back to being a great player again.

"At the end of the day, we all play the game to try and do the right thing by our family, by our teammates and our fans. And that's probably the order that it goes in, to be honest.

"You want to make your family proud, you want to win games for your teammates and you want to have the people that turn up to watch, whether it's at the venue or through the TV screens, you want them to be proud of what you've done as well.”