West Indies head coach Phil Simmons reacted to Ricky Ponting’s comment on Indian batter Virat Kohli. He also talked about the former Indian skipper opting to rest through the limited-overs tour of the West Indies.

Kohli has come under scrutiny following his continuous failures with the bat. The right-hander is receiving a lot of flak and many have even started to question his place in the Indian side.

Kohli, who scored his last international century in 2019, is now struggling to score even a half-century. In the recent tour of England, the former Indian skipper failed miserably and registered low scores in one Test, two T20Is, and two ODIs he played. 

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Earlier, former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting said that he would continue to push the star batter because he knows the upside and that any opposition attack would breathe a sigh of relief if India decides to drop him. 

Phil Simmons, West Indies head coach was asked for his reaction on Ponting's comments by journalist Vimal Kumar. 

Simmons then said that he isn’t the coach of the team and Rahul Dravid is so he should be the one who will have to make the call. 

“Well, I ain't the coach of the Indian team. Rahul (Dravid) will have to make that decision. He's there. If I was there I would think about it and how I would go about that job,” Phil Simmons said. 

Reacting to the absence of key Indian players, Simmons said that he isn’t happy as they wanted to play against the best. He highlighted Kohli’s record and said it would’ve been nice had he been there. 

“I am not happy that people are not there because you want to play against the best players and we all know that Virat's record is says that he is one of the best of all time. So yes I am disappointed and it would have been nice had he been here. I'm sure all the guys would have loved the competition,” he said. 

Simmons further said: “Criticisms are everywhere. I'm sure people want him to do well all the time and nobody can do things well all the time,” he said. 

Kohli has been rested for the whole tour of the West Indies and he would be hoping break to do good to him and stage a roaring comeback. 

(Hindustan Times inputs)