Ricky Ponting hits the bulls-eye on Rohit Sharma-Hardik Pandya situation in India blues amid MI duo’s special moment.

Ricky Ponting hailed Rohit Sharma’s captaincy as he managed his bowlers like Jasrpit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya and others well against Pakistan. Legendary Australia skipper Ricky Ponting was highly impressed with Rohit Sharma’s captaincy against Pakistan as he used his bowlers while defending a moderate 120-run target. It was a tricky pitch to bat on, but Pakistan had a decent start and were in control in the first half of their innings, however, Rohit looked calm and composed and didn’t hit any panic button stuck to his plans while managing his bowlers. Rohit has the liberty of playing alongside Hardik and Bumrah in IPL as he led them in the past which gave him an added advantage of how to use them in critical situations. Hardik, who had a difficult IPL season as a player and captain this year, returned to form under Rohit’s captaincy in India’s blues. He has claimed three wickets in two matches. Hardik has always been a big asset for Rohit as he has done well under his captaincy at both MI and Indian teams. The credit goes to the Indian skipper, who has managed him well and shown confidence in him under pressure situations. Ponting revealed that he chatted with Rohit after India’s thrilling win over Pakistan. “Rohit Sharma is a very experienced captain, isn’t he? And I just saw him then and said, mate, your captaincy today was outstanding. I don’t think he could have done much more. You think about a lot of the bowlers that he’s got in his team,” Ponting told ICC. Meanwhile, Rohit didn’t have the best of days with the bat, but his leadership on the field was just outstanding. He didn’t lose calm when things were not going India’s way, and his bowlers also executed the plans well. Jasprit Bumrah led the pace attack and produced an outstanding spell of 3/14 in his four overs which suffocated Pakistan batters in the moderate chase. While he got good support from the other end as Hardik and Arshdeep Singh claimed two wickets each, while Axar Patel picked one. Mohammed Siraj also bowled an economical spell of 19 runs off his four overs.