With Virat Kohli proving his mettle once again with a brilliant double century in the ongoing second Test against Sri Lanka in Nagpur, former India skipper Sourav Ganguly has heaped lavish praise on the current India skipper.
Kohli, who had played a stunning 104-knock in the second innings of the last Test at the Eden Gardens, continued from where he had left off in Kolkata and looked at ease throughout before miscuing a Dilruwan Perera delivery to be dismissed for 213. The monumental knock not only put India in the driver’s seat in the game but also helped the 29-year old to shatter a few big batting records.
Kohli now holds the record of most Test centuries by India skipper, going past the legendary Sunil Gavaskar after scoring his 12th Test ton as skipper. He also equalled Brian Lara’s record of most double centuries in Tests after scoring his fifth double ton. The 29-year old also became the first captain to score 10 centuries in a calendar year, breaking Ricky Ponting and Graeme Smith’s record of most centuries in a year as a captain. Both the players had scored 9 centuries in a year.
Impressed with his latest knock, Ganguly said the Delhi-born star has maintained India’s knack of producing champions in every era.
“He’s fantastic with the way he’s gone about his career. He just keeps getting better and better. Every era has produced champions in Indian cricket whether it was Gavaskar, Tendulkar and now its Kohli.
“It’s great to watch him and it’s great news for Indian cricket that somebody keeps the baton going in every era. Hopefully he keeps continuing in the next 15-16 months when it’s going to be difficult conditions for India,” Ganguly told India Today.
Ganguly also gave his views on the much-talked-about topic who is better among Kohli and Australia skipper Steve Smith who too made the headlines for all the right reasons after scoring a sublime century in the first Ashes Test. Ganguly did not pick anyone between the two and said that both are the best in the world at the moment.
“Steve Smith is a champion batsman, if you compare both the hundreds today maybe in terms of the bowling quality England was a better bowling attack than Sri Lanka. But that doesn’t take anything away from Kohli. You play what you get and I think he has been fantastic,” Ganguly said.
“He’s got four back-to-back Test hundreds in Australia, he’s got a hundred in South Africa. England is the only place he hasn’t conquered but that was an old Virat Kohli back then. Let Kohli go to England this summer and I have a huge feeling that he will turn the record out there as well.”
“Let’s not compare Steve Smith and Virat Kohli. For me both of them are right up there and they are the two best batsmen in the world at the moment.
“Virat Kohli is special. I’ve seen players and I’ve played with the greats. His energy, his hunger, the way he turns tables around from the way he keeps scoring runs is phenomenal. Hopefully he can carry this forward and do even better,” he added.