Rohit Sharma is an experienced captain: Ricky Ponting after IND vs PAK

New Delhi,UPDATED: Jun 10, 2024 13:24 IST

Former ODI World Cup winning captain, Ricky Ponting lauded Rohit Sharma for his captaincy during India's high-octane clash against Pakistan at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, New York on June 9, Sunday. Ponting said that he interacted with Rohit after India's win and hailed the skipper for his outstanding captaincy in a low-scoring thriller. India registered a memorable win by 6 runs against Pakistan as they continued their domination over the neighbouring country.

In a video released by the ICC on their social media, Ponting pointed out that Rohit had the experience of captaining bowlers like Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya in IPL for MI. He noted that prior experience from franchise cricket came in handy for the Indian team in a tense match.

"Rohit Sharma is a very experienced captain, isn't he? And I just saw him then and said, mate, your captaincy today was outstanding. I don't think he could have done much more. You think about a lot of the bowlers that he's got in his team. He's actually had those bowlers in the IPL as well, not only for India. So he understands them, knows when he can use them, but it's one thing for the captain to set a plan, the bowlers are going to go ahead and execute it and Hardik was outstanding," Ponting said in the video. T20 World Cup: Full Coverage | Complete Schedule

How Hardik-Bumrah scripted comeback for India?

Hardik and Bumrah kept on chipping away with wickets in the lead-up to the death overs during Pakistan's chase of 120 runs. Pakistan, who were on course to chase down the target, were reduced from 80 for 3 by the start of the 15th over and were reduced to 113 for 7 by the end of the 20th over.

Ponting also hailed Hardik for his all-round brilliance and also unsung hero Axar Patel for his economical bowling.

"I thought he did a really good job with the ball as well, and then you break it down and this has been a wicket that the seamers have liked, but their spinner bowled four overs for 20 as well and Patel picked up a big wicket. Yeah, the wicket was definitely different in the second innings. I mean, you can see Pakistan got the ball to hold up through natural variation, and you know, it was just a little bit tacky, but when the sun came out, the wicket dried out quite quickly and then you have to, you have to adapt and adjust on the run. I thought he did that really well," Ponting added.

India managed to defend their lowest-ever T20I total successfully as they have won 7 out of the last 8 meetings against Pakistan in T20 World Cups over the years.