Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting has backed Rohit Sharma to continue playing in ODIs as he is playing well at the top level. There were question marks raised on Rohit’s place in the ODI team after he could not deliver in the first four matches of the Champions Trophy.

However, Rohit showed he is a big-match player, scoring a match-winning knock of 76 runs off 83 balls in the final of the tournament against New Zealand at Dubai in the run-chase of 252 on Sunday.

Rohit scored 180 runs in five matches of the tournament at an average of 36 and a strike rate of 100. The Indian captain also said in the press conference that he will continue playing in ODIs, extinguishing all rumors regarding his ODI retirement.

Ricky Ponting said on ICC Review, “When you start getting to that point of your career, everyone’s waiting for you to retire. And I don’t know why, when you can still play as well as he’s played (in the final), I think he was just trying to put those questions to bed once and for all and say, ‘No, I’m still playing well enough. I love playing in this team. I love leading this team.’ And I think, the fact that he said that, to me, it means that he must have that goal in mind of playing in the next World Cup.”

Meanwhile, Ponting feels that not winning the ODI World Cup in 2023 must have been playing on Rohit Sharma’s mind. India had lost the final against Australia after they had dominated the whole tournament.

“I think probably the fact that they lost the last one and he was captain, that might be the thing that’s playing on the back of his mind. Just have one more crack at trying to win the T20 World Cup, the Champions Trophy, and the ODI World Cup. I mean when you see him play like he played in the Champions Trophy final, you wouldn’t say that his time is up just yet.”

Rohit will be part of Mumbai Indians in the upcoming IPL 2025.