Ricky Ponting claims 'India can cope with' transition period in Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli's absence

Published - 07 Jun 2025, 14:07 IST | Updated - 07 Jun 2025, 14:39 IST

Ricky Ponting opened up on India's future in Test cricket in the upcoming months in the absence of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, who retired from the longest format of the game in May 2025. Ahead of India's tour of England, Ponting felt it was hard to replace players of Rohit and Virat's caliber. However, he felt India could quickly revive itself, given the amount of talent.

The Australian claimed to have seen firsthand how youngsters emerge in the IPL in quick time to get fast-tracked into the Indian team and replicate their talent with performances at the highest level. While he felt youngsters lack experience, Ponting claimed that the amount of talent would ensure India would be fine.

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"It's always very hard to replace players like that that have been around for so long, that have played that much Test cricket. But if any country can do it and do it quickly, India can because of the amount of young talent that they have," Ponting said in the ICC Review.

"I've seen it first hand for 10 years now around the IPL and we've seen the emergence of Jaiswal and these sort of guys that have come into international cricket with India and done really well pretty much straight away. The skill side of it is one thing to replace, and I think India will replace the skill side of it easily enough, but the experience is the big thing that's going to be missing for them," Ponting added.

The PBKS Head Coach claimed that even in Rohit and Virat's absence, India has the experience of Jasprit Bumrah and KL Rahul. He concluded by saying that India can cope better than most of the teams in its transition period.

"So now, even with a young captain with Shubman Gill, they'll still have some experience around with KL Rahul and Bumrah and these sorts of guys. But I think if you look at a rebuilding sort of phase, I think India can cope with it better than most other teams," Ponting concluded.