Ricky Ponting lauds India's progress under Virat Kohli

"If you think about India before Virat, it was about winning a lot of games at home and not winning quite as many overseas. "The thing that improved the most was India winning a few more games overseas, and that's something that he and all of the Indian cricket have to be really proud of," Pointing told ICC on Monday.

"The other thing is there was really a real focus placed on Test cricket by the BCCI when Virat took over, and I think a lot of it has come from him as well – to focus more on Test cricket and winning more games home and away."

Away from home, India won 16 out of 36 matches under Kohli's captaincy, with an impressive win percentage of 44.44, the highest for an Indian or Asian captain who has led their team in at least 10 matches.

For any captain who has led his side in more than 20 Tests, Kohli finished with the fourth highest win percentage of 58.82 – only Steve Waugh, Don Bradman and Ponting himself have fared better.

"Given his Test record as captain, he can walk away from the role very, very proud of what he has achieved," he added.

Kohli dropped a bombshell on Jan 15, when he declared his decision to step down as the captain of the Indian Test team.

The decision came a day after India lost the final Test of the South Africa series overseas.