Ricky Ponting expressing concern about Virat Kohli‘s form has disappointed his ex-Australia teammate Shane Lee, who believes his former skipper’s words might wake up the sleeping giant in the run-up to the Border Gavaskar Trophy.
Ponting’s comments on Kohli raked up a storm at India head coach Gautam Gambhir‘s pre-departure press conference where he told his former on-field rival to mind his own business and worry about Australian cricket instead.
In reaction to the Indian coach’s response, Ponting said he isn’t “surprised” to hear that from Gambhir, calling him a “prickly character”.

Ponting had remarked that Kohli, who turned 36 on November 5, hasn’t been at his best in his 30s. In six Tests matches Kohli has played so far in 2024, he has scored just 250 runs in 12 innings at an average of 22.72, including a solitary half-century.
“I saw a stat the other day about Virat. It said he’s only scored two Test hundreds in the last five years. That didn’t seem right to me, but if that is accurate, then that’s a concern,” Ponting had said. “There probably wouldn’t be anyone else still playing international cricket as a top-order batsman who’s only scored two Test match hundreds in five years.”
Lee, who was Ponting’s teammate during Australia’s triumph at the 1999 World Cup, feels the war of words might work against Australia and fire Kohli up.
“That is a bad move, Ricky. What are you doing?” Lee said on Fox Cricket’s podcast ‘The Follow On’. “You are going to fire that guy up. He is a world class player and he will fire up out here.”

Lee predicted this BGT to be a “spicy series” after the verbal duel between Gambhir and Ponting over the latter’s comments on Kohli’s poor form, while also pointing at the ball-tampering controversy in the series between the ‘A’ teams from both sides preceding the BGT.
“It is going to be a fantastic series. I think there is going to be a bit of spice in this series, definitely with the ball-tampering issues in and around the India A team, and particularly now that Ricky Ponting has come out and given it to Kohli,” said Lee.
The former all-rounder, however, wasn’t too convinced about Australia’s batting line-up but backed the home team’s pace battery and off-spinner Nathan Lyon to put the Indian batsmen under the cosh.
“We have a world class attack with (Mitchell) Starc, (Pat) Cummins, (Josh) Hazlewood and Lyon..It doesn’t get much better than that…(But) our batting is fragile. It is probably one of the weaker batting line-ups I have seen for an Australian Test side in a long while,” Lee analysed.
“(Nathan) McSweeney is going to come in and he is under pressure, because he has never batted as an opener, and I think that is a specialist position. (Usman) Khawaja is the stand out for me at the moment. He is going to play really well. (Marnus) Labuschagne, for me, has been out of form for a while, as has (been) Steve Smith.”

On that note, he felt India’s bowling spearhead and vice-captain Jasprit Bumrah remains a major threat.
“It is going to come down to our batting and how well we can handle pressure, particularly with Bumrah and their pace attack steaming in when the wicket is doing a bit,” he added.
Holders India will defend the BGT in a five-Test series beginning November 22 in Perth. However, there is likelihood of captain Rohit Sharma missing the series opener because of personal reasons and Bumrah leading the team.