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Ex-Australia captain Ricky Ponting believes ageing stars Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma will rebound during ODI series.<\/em><\/p>\n Published On 22 Oct 2025<\/span>22 Oct 2025<\/span><\/p>\n Click here to share on social media<\/p>\n share2<\/p>\n India\u2019s former captains Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma should not be written off after their team\u2019s seven-wicket loss to Australia in the first of three one-day internationals, former Australian captain Ricky Ponting said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n After Sunday\u2019s defeat in Perth, the three-match series moves to Adelaide on Thursday before concluding in Sydney on Saturday.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/p>\n Kohli and Rohit, who retired from the game\u2019s other formats, now feature solely in the 50-over cricket. With the 2027 World Cup in mind, the pair returned to action on Sunday for the first time since lifting the Champions Trophy in March.<\/p>\n Neither looked convincing against Australia\u2019s pace bowlers, with Rohit edging Josh Hazlewood to second slip on eight and Kohli cutting Mitchell Starc to a diving Cooper Connolly at backward point for a duck.<\/p>\n Ricky Ponting, right, believes Rohit Sharma will regain his form during India\u2019s tour of Australia [File: Manish Swarup\/AP]<\/p>\n However, Ponting is confident the pair will soon rediscover their touch.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t write off champion players ever. These two have been among the best, and while I\u2019ve said before that Virat\u2019s the best 50-over player I\u2019ve ever seen, you don\u2019t write them off,\u201d Ponting said on the ICC Review podcast.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ll find a way to contribute and win games for their team, and if they do that, they\u2019ll most likely be in that World Cup team in 2027. I\u2019d expect to see both those guys bounce back into it pretty quickly.<\/p>\n \u201cAdelaide is a great place to bat and a great place to play cricket. But it won\u2019t be easy for the fact that they are facing some of the best white-ball bowlers that have ever played the game.\u201d<\/p>\n Ravi Shastri, who coached Rohit and Kohli during their peak years, said few understand better how revered the pair are in India and abroad, and that they would not risk their legacy by playing on too long.<\/p>\n \u201cThe contribution is over a decade, decade and a half in the case of Virat,\u201d Shastri said. \u201cIt\u2019s special. Whether they finish tomorrow or they finish the day after or whenever. That legacy will remain.\u201d<\/p>\n Virat Kohli of India walks from the field after being dismissed for a duck by Mitchell Starc of Australia during Game 1 of the ODI series between Australia and India at Perth Stadium on October 19, 2025, in Perth, Australia [Paul Kane\/Getty Images]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ex-Australia captain Ricky Ponting believes ageing stars Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma will rebound during ODI series. Published On 22 Oct 202522 Oct 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share India\u2019s former captains Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma should not be written off after their team\u2019s seven-wicket loss to Australia in the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[1144,8647,2803,3624,2868,150,4303,15321,17526,17525,17524],"class_list":{"0":"post-29716","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-cricket","9":"tag-defeat","10":"tag-form","11":"tag-indias","12":"tag-kohli","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-odi","15":"tag-perth","16":"tag-ponting","17":"tag-regain","18":"tag-rohit"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n