I met Virat about a month ago when we played with them in Bangalore. He and I had a good chat about his game and where he was at in his career. And he told me then that he felt he was almost back to his best game, the ICC website quoted Ponting as saying.

You probably saw it last night, you know, he played a very good IPL and I’m sure he will be the prize wicket that all Australians look forward to, he added.

When asked to compare Rohit Sharma’s captaincy with players like MS Dhoni and Sourav Ganguly, Ponting said: I know Rohit very well. I have played with him and coached him. I was the one who gave him a chance to be captain of Mumbai Indians when I myself stepped down as a player. I was the one who single handedly picked Rohit to be captain of MI.

I really respect him as a person and what he did as a player. The hardest thing for anyone from the outside to judge a captain by what he does on the field.

It’s not about changing fields or bowling or batting order. It’s about how you interact with them. More than 50 percent of the captain’s work is done off the field. Knowing Rohit as well as I do, I can tell you that he’s a very caring person, and if you do that, you get great results out of your players.