“Keep the kit bag away…”: Ricky Ponting suggests Babar Azam to follow Virat Kohli's path to regain form

Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has suggested former Pakistan captain Babar Azam to adopt Virat Kohli's approach to regain his lost form. Babar was rested from the last two Test matches against England after poor form. Under the leadership of Shan Masood, Pakistan won both the matches and won the series 2–1, which was the first time. Babar has scored 3,997 runs in 55 Test matches at an average of 43.92. However, he had not scored a single Test half-century in 18 innings by the end of 2022 and saw his form decline in the year since he was made captain and then stepped down after Pakistan's group-stage exit this year . T20 World Cup in June.

“The biggest challenge is how they get Babar back into their team. They have to find a way to get Babar back into form and back into their (Test) team,” Ponting said in the ICC review.

Ponting suggested that Babar should take some time away from the game to return refreshed, similar to the way former India captain Kohli attempted to get himself back into form after a poor performance with the bat.

Earlier this year, Kohli had taken a break from the game during India's home Test series against England citing personal reasons. Following his return, he played a match-winning innings against South Africa in the final of the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 – India's first ICC trophy in 11 years.

In 2022, Kohli took a similar break and performed brilliantly across all formats in the next 12 months after returning from the break. He scored his first international century since 2019 along with a match-winning innings against Pakistan in the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 and a golden performance in the ODI World Cup 2023 on home soil, scoring a record 765 runs and was named player of the year. Of the tournament.

“You know, when you look at (Babar's) stats, it's somewhat similar to what we were talking about earlier with Virat Kohli. Sometimes – and I think Virat On record saying – he had a bit of a break, he took some time away from the game to refresh and sort out some things that he needed to sort out.

“This could be just what Babar needs. Maybe Babar needs to go away for a while and stop trying so hard. Put the kit bag away for a while, and some And think and then hopefully he comes back fresh, because we know about him. “The best thing is he is as good as any other player,” Ponting said. “Hopefully we get to see that in the latter half of his career.”