Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting believes India head coach Gautam Gambhir’s recent crack at him about stalwart Virat Kohli’s form comes down to deflecting pressure following their home series whitewash against New Zealand. The element of spice has added another layer of intensity to the rivalry between two Test heavyweights of modern-day cricket. Things started to flare up after Gambhir took a jibe at Ponting for criticizing Kohli for his recent form. The former Australian skipper’s comments didn’t sit well with the Indian head coach.

Gambhir questioned Ponting’s relevance to Indian cricket while reflecting on his remarks about the Indian stalwart.

Ponting suspects that Gambhir’s response was partly concocted to deflect pressure off a team that lost a home Test series for the first time in 24 years.

“[As with] any leader or leadership role around international teams, they are the one who has got to take some bullets sometimes. You’re the one who has to sit there in front of the media when you’ve lost. Quite often when you win it’ll be the players who get to talk about it,” Ponting said as quoted from The Sydney Morning Herald ahead of the opening Test in Perth on Friday.

“Let’s not forget this little prickly thing that happened between him and I was off the back of them losing that series 3-0. Straight away he would’ve had his defences up, [and] then I say something that didn’t thrill him that much, but you’d expect it to be that way when you understand his character,” he noted.

Ponting expects Gambhir to respond with similar comments if he continues to be under pressure on the back of India’s dwindling performances.

“If he’s under pressure, if India aren’t playing well during the summer, and he feels a bit under pressure, I think a lot of his responses will be a little bit similar to the way he was the other day,” Ponting noted.

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