Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting lauded India’s skipper Rohit Sharma after the Blues defeated Pakistan by six runs in a low-scoring thriller in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024 in New York on Sunday.
Pakistan's batters failed to chase the 120-run target despite a brilliant start as they had not lost a wicket in the first four overs on the tricky New York pitch which was favouring bowlers.
Ponting, who guided Australia to two ODI World Cups, stated that Sharma had the experience of captaining bowlers like Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 and that paid off.
"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,” Ponting said in a video posted by the ICC.
“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.”
He also praised Pandya who was subjected to criticism due to his subpar performances in IPL 2024 with Mumbai Indians (MI) as he was also booed in multiple stadiums during the tournament.
"I thought he [Pandya] 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,” the World Cup winner added.
“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."
- Rohit Sharma
