Indian skipper Virat Kohli is broadly hailed as extraordinary compared to other batsmen in the cutting edge period. Since making his international debut in 2008, Kohli has never looked behind and proceeded to content various batting records with and vanquished new regions with his expertise and enthusiasm.
Loading acclaim on the cutting edge ‘run-machine’, the previous skipper Sunil Gavaskar has drawn similitudes among Kohli and West Indies legend Viv Richards. Gavaskar said that the current Indian skipper’s batting is fundamentally the same as that of Richards.
The 31-year-old Kohli is the main batsman in the world who midpoints more than 50 in every one of the three configurations (Tests, ODIs and T20Is) of the game. Richards in the interim is viewed as one of the best batsmen ever to play the game.
“The Little Master’ recalled what it was like to play against Richards and stated Kohli also bats like the way the former West Indies talisman used to do. “It was very difficult to keep Viv Richards quiet when he was at the crease,” Gavaskar said on Star Sports’ show ‘Winning the Cup — 1983’.
“Similarly, if you look at Virat Kohli’s batting today, in the same ball and same line, he will use his top hand and score a boundary towards the extra cover region and will use the bottom hand and score a boundary towards the mid-on and mid-wicket region.
“That’s why Virat Kohli is considered as the No. 1 player because he bats exactly like Viv Richards. Earlier, Gundappa Vishwanath, V.V.S. Laxman used to bat like this,” he added on the show that can be watched on the Star Sports network.
Curiously, previous Australia commander Ian Chappell had additionally contrasted Kohli’s batting and that of Richards a month ago and appraised the Indian as the best all-position batsman in the current age.
A year ago, Kohli got an opportunity to talk with Richards during India’s voyage through the Caribbean and the last had said he sees same enthusiasm for the game in the Indian captain that he had during his playing days.
“I always felt I was good enough to be competing and I wanted to express myself in the best way that I can,” Richards told Kohli in the video uploaded on BCCI Twitter handle on August 22, 2019.
“I see that little similarity in you and that same passion in you. There are times when folks would look at us and say, ‘Wow why are they so angry’.”
