ICC World Cup 2019: MS Dhoni’s experience and knowledge vital for Virat Kohli, feels Ricky Ponting

The ICC World Cup 2019 is scheduled to begin on May 30 and almost every participating team is in its final stages of preparations. While some teams are playing bilateral limited-overs series with other teams to gauge the strength of their sides, the Indian cricket team players will be seen participating in the 12th edition of the Indian Premier League, starting from March 23, as part of its preparations for the mega event.

It will be the first World Cup for Virat Kohli as the captain of Indian team and third overall. He has been the torch bearer of Indian batting since the start of 2018 when he accumulated a mountain of runs in every format of the game.

He will also have former captain MS Dhoni in his side giving his valuable inputs during the game and everyone is seen that Kohli seems to be less worried about proceedings when Dhoni is around to marshal the troops and guide the bowlers.

It is a huge plus for Virat

One guy who knows what it takes to win the World Cup is Ricky Ponting of Australia, who as a captain won two titles back to back in 2003 and 2007 and was part of the 1999 World Cup winning team as well. He too feels that MS Dhoni’s presence in the Indian team is not only beneficial to the team, but to Kohli as well.

“It is a huge plus for Virat to have someone like MS Dhoni around for the World Cup. He brings in a lot of experience, a lot of knowledge about the game. He has been there before, been through the World Cups and was the captain of the World Cup-winning team,” Ponting was quoted saying by India Today.

Ricky Ponting also stressed on the point that Dhoni’s match-winning abilities are been overlooked and look in control with the bat in the middle, especially during the run chases. He also felt that absence of MS Dhoni in the last two ODIs of the five-match series was a key reason, Australia made a comeback to win the series 3-2.

India has the team to succeed in English conditions

“There is no doubt about the quality of the Indian team. We have seen it on display for a number of years now. I think they have got so many, really good, match-winning players starting with someone like Rohit Sharma at the top who has made three or four double hundreds in one-day cricket.

They’ve got so much talent available and will do really well in the English conditions as well. They will be one of the favourite teams going in,” Ponting further added.

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