Only one Indian in list as former Aussie captain Ricky Ponting picks Test team of the decade
Former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting named Virat Kohli as captain in his Test team of the decade on Monday.
No other Indian cricketer featured in Ponting's team of the decade, which featured three Aussie, four English cricketers and one from each of New Zealand, Sri Lanka and South Africa.
"Everyone's picking teams of the decade so I thought I'd join in the fun. This would be my Test team of the 2010s," Ponting wrote on Twitter with his final XI of the decade.
Everyone's picking teams of the decade so I thought I'd join in the fun. This would be my Test team of the 2010's:
— Ricky Ponting AO (@RickyPonting) December 30, 2019
David Warner
Alastair Cook
Kane Williamson
Steve Smith
Virat Kohli (c)
Kumar Sangakkarra (wk)
Ben Stokes
Dale Steyn
Nathan Lyon
Stuart Broad
James Anderson
Kohli, who is the current World No. 1 batsman in Test and One-Day International (ODI) format, already scored as many as 70 international hundreds and is only behind Ponting (71) and legendary Sachin Tendulkar (100).
The Indian captain, who averages more than 50 in all formats, is also third in the list of leading run-scorers of all time with 21,444 runs, behind Ponting (27,483) and Tendulkar (34,357).
The Delhi batsman has ended 2019 with a tally of 2,455 runs and this is the fourth straight year when Kohli has finished with most international runs (Tests, ODIs and T20Is combined) in the year. While in 2016, Kohli top-scored with 2,595 runs to his name, he followed that up with 2,818 and 2,735 runs in 2017 and 2018 respectively.
Meanwhile, Wisden recently announced their T20I team of the decade, which featured just two Indian cricketers – Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah. They chose Aaron Finch as the captain of the team, which did not feature either MS Dhoni or Rohit Sharma.
"While Kohli's record in domestic T20 cricket is patchy, the same cannot be said of T20Is. Kohli's average of 53 was the best in the decade, and while his consistency compromises his strike-rate slightly, he is still able to score at a good rate, even if not exceptional," Wisden said about Kohli.
"Strong against pace and spin, and rapid between the wickets, Kohli is an ideal player at No.3, able to fight fires when an early wicket is lost and stabilize the innings, but also accelerate when a platform is set. Following a huge first-wicket partnership, Kohli will slide down the order in this XI," it added.