He cherished that post so much: Ponting reflects on Virat Kohli's decision to resign as India's Test captain

A day after India lost the three-match Test series versus South Africa, Virat Kohli dropped a bomb by announcing his decision to step down as the captain in the purest format. By then, Kohli was already sacked as the ODI captain whereas he had resigned as the T20I skipper after the World Cup.

Kohli had tweeted saying, on January 15, "Everything has to come to a halt at some stage and for me as Test captain of India, it’s now. It’s been 7 years of hard work, toil and relentless perseverance every day to take the team in the right direction. I’ve done the job with absolute honesty and left nothing out there. Everything has to come to a halt at some stage and for me as Test Captain of India, it’s now."

Recently, former Aussie captain Ricky Ponting reflected on Kohli's sudden announcement of stepping down as the Test captain.

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Reacting to Kohli's decision, Ponting said in the first episode of 'The ICC Review', "Yes, it did actually (surprise me). Probably the main reason why is, I had a chat and good catch-up with Virat during the first part of the IPL (2021) before it got postponed. He was talking then about stepping away (from captaincy) from white-ball cricket and how passionate he was to continue on to be Test match captain. He just loved and cherished that job and that post so much. Obviously, the Indian Test team had achieved a lot under his leadership. When I heard it, I was really, really surprised."

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"You only have to watch him on the field for an hour of the day's play to realize how passionate he is about that job and the role, and how much he wants the team to win and how much he wants the best for Indian cricket. I was shocked, but then I started thinking about other things, even my own time as captain. I have gone on record and said that I probably think I played a couple of years longer than I should have in hindsight. I think I might have been captain for a couple of years longer than I should have," he added.

Talking about Kohli's Test captaincy tenure, the 33-year-old led India to their maiden Test series triumph in Australia, guided the side to an unassailable 2-1 lead over England in the incomplete five Tests in the United Kingdom in mid-2021 and took them to the finale of the inaugural WTC cycle.