Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has claimed that he wasn’t taking a dig at Virat Kohli and he was just giving his honest opinion about Kohli’s recent form. Ponting also added that he was surprised with the reaction from India coach Gautam Gambhir’s reaction to his comments on Kohli as well.

However, Ponting made headlines for saying that Kohli’s form was a concern and someone with just 2 hundreds in 5 years wouldn’t have been a top-order batter in international cricket as well. This didn’t go down well with Gambhir, who told the former Aussie captain to focus on Australian cricket instead.

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“I said I would be concerned (about his form),” Ponting told 7NEWS. “But I think if you ask Virat, I’m sure Virat would be a little bit concerned that he hasn’t been able to make the same amount of hundreds as he has in previous years. In no way was it a dig at him. I actually followed it up by saying he’s played well in Australia and he’ll be keen to bounce back over here. So, it’s amazing how little things can get cut up, but he’s a class player and he’s played well in Australia in the past.”

Speaking about the response he got from Gautam Gambhir, Ricky Ponting also said that the current India coach is quite a ‘prickly’ character and he wasn’t surprised to see him come back at him as well. However, Ponting also expressed his willingness to shake the India coach’s hand during the Test series, though he doesn’t expect it to happen as well. Kohli has smashed 1352 runs in 13 matches in Australia which came at an average of 54.08 down under.

“I was surprised to read the reaction but knowing the coach, Gautam Gambhir … he’s quite a prickly character, so I’m not surprised it was him who said something back,” concluded Ricky Ponting.