Ricky Ponting reveals he was approached for Team India's head coach job

Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting has revealed that he was offered the role of India's senior men's team head coach during IPL 2021. Ponting said that the people who approached him were "pretty hell-bent" on getting him on board, but he couldn't accept it due to his workload-related reservations.

Team India's head coach for four years, Ravi Shastri's tenure concluded after the T20 World Cup 2021. Former India captain Rahul Dravid replaced him at the helm.

Speaking on The Grade Cricketer podcast, Ricky Ponting explained that taking up the arduous job would have meant spending most of his time in India or on tours. The 46-year-old, who is the current head coach of Delhi Capitals (DC), also said that he wasn't keen to leave his roles at the IPL franchise and Channel 7.

Ricky Ponting said:

"...But [in this job] I am living in India for 300 days a year. Yeah, look I had a couple of conversations with some people during the IPL about it. You know the people I spoke to were pretty hell-bent on trying to find a way to make it work because the first thing I said was 'I just can't give up that time, it will mean I can't coach in the IPL, I'll have to give up [Channel] 7 stuff in the summer, it just can't work'. But it's nice to have people thinking you might be able to do these big jobs but there's a lot more to come with it than saying yes or no to a coaching gig."

One of the all-time cricketing greats, Ricky Ponting has also coached the Mumbai Indians and some Australian teams in the past. He has been with DC since 2018 and has been hailed for the franchise's evolution into one of the best in the tournament.

Notably, Ponting has also worked with current BCCI president Sourav Ganguly in DC when the latter was a team mentor during the 2019 season.

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Surprised that Rahul Dravid accepted to be India's head coach: Ricky Ponting

Ricky Ponting also expressed his surprise that Rahul Dravid took the job despite having a young family, and reports of him being content with his prior roles with the Under-19 and India 'A' teams and the National Cricket Academy.

Ricky Ponting added:

"I am surprised that Dravid has done it as well. There was a lot of chat about how happy he was in his Under-19 role or the academy role he had. I am not sure much about his family life but I am pretty sure he's got youngish kids, at least one anyway. [But] as I said the people I spoke to - they were going to make sure that they get exactly the right person so would have been able to convince Dravid to do it."

Team India is currently competing with New Zealand in a three-match T20I series. Rahul Dravid's coaching career started on a good note as the Men in Blue won the first match by five wickets on Wednesday.