“Sounded Like He Found Himself In Quite A Dark Place”: Ricky Ponting On Virat Kohli | Cricket News

Virat Kohli took a break from international cricket before returning to the Indian side for the Asia Cup 2022. He was rested for the tours of West Indies and Zimbabwe and the former India captain utilised the time to relax and shift his focus from cricket. Kohli has been struggling for runs in 2022 and the break must have helped him as he played a vital knock of 35 runs and finished as the joint-top scorer for India in the pressure match against Pakistan on Sunday and continued the uptick in his form with an unbeaten knock of 59 against Hong Kong.

In an interview to Star Sports, before the start of the tournament, Kohli had opened up about his mental health struggles and why he needed the break.

Now, former Australia captain and batting legend Ricky Ponting has opened up on the issue and has said that he hopes Kohli would be back among runs during the ICC T20 World Cup later this year in Australia.

“When I saw his runs and then I’ve read on social media over the last few days, it sounded like he found himself in quite a dark place. Like a lot of us men, he wasn’t willing to talk about it and share it.

“It sounds like when he has started to share, started to talk, it might have just freed him up a bit and he started to feel better about himself again.

“I just hope that we see him back at his best and in the World Cup. I’d rather see Virat come out here (in Australia) and be one of the leading players in the tournament, but just make sure he doesn’t score many runs against Australia when they play!” Ponting said on the ICC Review.

Kohli looked sharp in the match against Hong Kong as he played some trademark strokes to score yet another half-century in T20 internationals.

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He hit three sixes and also rotated the strike well to help the team finish with a big score alongside Suryakumar Yadav‘s blitzkrieg.

India’s total of 192/2 proved too much for Hong Kong and the Rohit Sharma-led side registered a 40-run win to qualify for the Super-4 stage.