“My wife will divorce me if I keep the stubble,” said the Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting ahead of his side’s first game in the 2021 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) against the Chennai Super Kings in Mumbai on Saturday, April 10.

Ponting, whose pre-match, post-match and in-training speeches have become a rage on social media, has been compared with a fictional character ‘Kabir Khan’ played by Shah Rukh Khan in the 2007 film ‘Chak De India’. Especially now as Ponting has grown a stubble, which Khan too had in the film while delivering that rousing speech before the final of the women’s hockey tournament in the film.

In a video posted by Delhi Capitals on the day of their first game, Ponting was asked if he is going to keep the stubble on the matchday, he denied it saying, “No I won’t. Because if I do, I think my wife will see me on television and she’ll probably divorce me [chuckled] 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. So, on the night of the 9th (a night before the game), I’ll be having a shave for sure.

The only difference between @RickyPonting and Kabir Khan is that the latter had a stubble on Matchday #CSKvDC #YehHaiNayiDilli #IPL2021 pic.twitter.com/nRioP0WKRS

— Delhi Capitals (@DelhiCapitals) April 10, 2021

Ponting, who has been with the side for the fourth year now, has inspired a revival of the Delhi franchise as they finished on the third position in 2019 and second in 2020 as they perennially finished in the lower half of the points table in the first 11 seasons.