Virat Kohli picked as captain of Ricky Ponting's Test team of the decade; no other Indian features in the list

Add as a preferred source on Google

Melbourne, Dec 30: Former Australian cricketer and legendary captain Ricky Ponting on Monday (December 30) selected India skipper Virat Kohli as the skipper of his all-star Test team of the decade.

Ponting's Test team of the 2010s doesn't feature any other Indian apart from Kohli, who is currently ranked No.1 in both ICC Test and ODI rankings for batsmen, and features four English players.

The Englishmen in his team include all-rounder Ben Stokes, batsman Alastair Cook, and the pace duo of Stuart Broad and James Anderson. Among the Australians, one of the all-time batting greats has opted for Steve Smith and David Warner along with spinner Nathan Lyon. He also picked up former Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara as the wicketkeeper of the side.

"Everyone's picking teams of the decade so I thought I'd join in the fun," Ponting wrote on his Twitter handle. "This would be my Test team of the 2010's: David Warner, Alastair Cook, Kane Williamson, Steve Smith, Virat Kohli (c), Kumar Sangakkara (wk), Ben Stokes, Dale Steyn, Nathan Lyon, Stuart Broad, James Anderson."

Kohli has already amassed 70 international hundreds and is only behind Ponting (71) and Sachin Tendulkar (100). The 31-year-old from Delhi, who averages more than 50 in all formats, is also third in the list of leading run-scorers of all time with 21,444 runs, behind Ponting (27,483) and Tendulkar (34,357).

The India skipper, who has scored runs all around the world, ended 2019 as the leading run-getter. Kohli holds the number one position in both the ICC Test and ODI batting charts. Kohli was also named captain of the Test XI of the decade by Cricket Australia's official news website. The Delhi cricketer was the only cricketer who featured in the list.

(With PTI inputs)