The advice Ricky Ponting would give Steve Smith and Virat Kohli
“It’s difficult when you feel like you’re not playing the way that you once could, and the game feels like it’s getting a little bit harder,” Seven commentator Ponting told this masthead. “My batting went downhill the harder I tried. The harder I tried to be perfect then I was getting further and further away.Still dominant at domestic level, Ponting found the mental hurdles of Test cricket became so great that they compelled him to retire in 2012. Looking back, he wishes he had not pressed so hard, and hopes neither Smith nor Kohli do likewise as they rage against the dying of the light.In his final years at the top of world cricket, Ponting pushed harder and harder to rediscover his best, spending long hours in the nets, punishing himself with fitness training and setting a standard that left younger players exhausted.Loading“Being in the team, but not being captain with all those young guys around me, I was trying to set an example as well and show those guys the right ways to go about it. I was fitter than ever, I was training better than ever around that time, and even when I went back to Shield cricket I made runs for fun at that level, but when I went up and was trying to do the right thing, it got harder.“If I’d had my time again I’d have forgotten about all that stuff and just focused on watching the ball and scoring runs, and Smith and Kohli have enough good people around them to get things back on track pretty quickly. That’s the lesson I learned, and it’ll be interesting to see the mindset of Kohli and Smith this summer.”In contrast to many observers of Kohli, 36, and Smith, 35, Ponting believes they can each find a second wind in Test cricket, much as Joe Root has for England. For one thing, neither have played anywhere near as many Tests as Ponting’s gargantuan total of 168.“I still think they’ve got plenty of time to find their best,” Ponting said. “It might be Smudge’s time actually, after that experiment up the top. He’s back down in his more comfortable spot at No.4, which I was on record saying I don’t think he should have moved, it should have been an opener who played at that stage.
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