‘My wife will probably divorce me’: Ricky Ponting reveals the reason behind his clean shave before every game

Delhi Capitals (DC) head coach Ricky Ponting, who has become quite popular on social media because of his pre-match, post-match and in-training speeches, nowadays is being compared with a fictional character ‘Kabir Khan’.

The role of this character was played by Shah Rukh Khan in the 2007 Bollywood blockbuster ‘Chak De India’. Before Delhi’s opening game against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Ponting had grown a stubble, which Khan too sported in the film while delivering that rousing speech before the final of the Women’s Hockey World Cup.

In a video shared by DC on their social media platforms, Ponting was asked if he is going to keep the stubble on the match day, he denied it and said: “No I won’t. Because if I do, I think my wife will see me on television and she’ll probably divorce me if she sees that.

“I’ll be having a shave over the next couple of days. I make sure that when the game day comes around. It’s always a ritual of mine anyway. I’m not sure if you guys have noticed this but I am cleanly shaven the night before every game,” he added.

Ponting gave an intense speech to his DC team members just a few days before the start of IPL 2021. The video soon went viral on social media and Prithvi Shaw revealed that Punter’s speech was very close to one which SRK delivered in ‘Chak De India’.

Meanwhile, in the second match of IPL 2021, Rishabh Pant’s DC thumped the MS Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings (CSK) by seven wickets. This was Pant’s first game as captain of an IPL side.

“It was actually special for me captaining my first match in IPL and the toss is against MS [Dhoni]. I have always learnt from him. If I have any problems, I go to him. He is my go-to man. It’s a good feeling, I guess,” the 23-year-old said in the post-match interview.