Former cricketers Ricky Ponting and Gautam Gambhir continued their fiery verbal jibes at one another ahead of the upcoming five-Test series between Australia and India (BGT 2024) starting on November 22 in Perth.

Ricky Ponting had made comments on the form of two of India’s seniormost batters Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, coming into this crucial Test series. In response, India head coach Gautam Gambhir slammed Ponting for talking about the two Indian stars and asked him to focus on Australian cricket since he had nothing to do with Indian cricket.

Now, Ponting has continued the war of words saying that Gambhir is already under pressure even before the Test series begins. He stated that he wasn't sure if he mentioned other Indian batters because he felt singled out, but he did add that India might have an opportunity to criticize him if one of them had a successful series in Australia.

“I'm not sure if I mentioned a couple of them, but I reckon he's just throwing me in the deep end, trying to find their two most experienced and make sure when they come out, they put that back on me,” Ponting said on the 'The Run Home with Joel & Fletch’ podcast.

Ponting reiterated that he was worried that Kohli had only managed three hundreds in the previous five years, during which time his home average had fallen to around thirty. He continued by saying that, given his stellar record in Australia, Kohli has always performed well here and that this tour might provide the ideal opportunity for him to disprove his detractors.

He pointed out that the reporter, in the press conference ahead of India's departure for Perth on Monday, never mentioned the second part of his comment.

“I was asked the other night if I was concerned about Virat Kohli's form. A day before, I had read his stats from the last five years, so it was clear in my mind. I think he made only two (three) centuries in the last five years. His average in India is now down to 30 from 90, during this period. So yes, I would be concerned. And I said if you ask him about his form, he would be concerned because it is nowhere near what it used to be. But then I said since he loves playing in Australia and has a great record here, so if there ever was a tour where he could turn things around, it would be this.

But they never talked about the second part. Then Gambhir went and faced the press having just lost against New Zealand. The hair on the back of his neck is already standing up. We got a bit of history as well, but he took a chance to fire back at me,” he said.

Ponting was then played an audio tape of Gambhir's statement at the media conference, and he reiterated his remark saying: “As I said, he is a prickly character.”

Here is the video: