Pakistan star Azhar Ali has backed India to win the upcoming five-match Test series in England.
India is currently indulged in the One-Day International series with England. The Men in Blue have thoroughly dominated their stay in England so far. Kohli & Co. won the T20I series 2-1 and are leading the ODI series 1-0.
On Thursday, Kohli & Co. steamrolled the hosts to take the lead in the three-match ODI series. Barring the first ten overs of England’s innings, it was a pretty much one way traffic in favour of India.
Chinaman Kuldeep Yadav was once again the wrecker-in-chief bagging career-best figures of six for 25 to blow away England.
What a day for @imkuldeep18 here at Trent Bridge. Picks up his first 5-wkt haul in ODIs and also becomes the first left-arm wrist spinner to pick up 6 wickets in ODI cricket.
Follow the game here – https://t.co/iWWklQz7H3 #ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/7eXJQMeKXe
— BCCI (@BCCI) July 12, 2018
As a result, England were all out for a modest total of 268 despite being 71 for no loss after ten. In reply, India chased down the total with utmost ease in the 41st over. Opener Rohit Sharma once again starred with the bat, scoring an unbeaten ton while Virat Kohli scored 75 as the duo batted England out of the game.
And Ali feels India would dominate the Test series too because of the prevailing warm weather conditions.
“The prevailing warm weather conditions in England at the moment seem to favour an India victory in the Test series in my view. They are after all, ranked as the number one Test side in the world and the only thing England have in their favour is the fact that they are playing on their home grounds.
“England may have a good bowling attack for home conditions but in good batting conditions, the Indian batsmen will prosper and can easily put their team in a winning position when the series starts,” Azhar told PakPassion.net.
The Pakistan opener further lavished praise on India skipper Virat Kohli, calling him the fittest cricketer in the world.
“I believe the most important ingredient of Virat Kohli’s success is his determination to succeed. His composure in any situation is simply amazing,” he said.
“The level of professionalism that he shows in the game is comfortably the best in the game.His attention to fitness is exemplary and how he has steadily improved game year on year is just incredible.
“So, it’s all down to his hard-work and his desire to improve his fitness to the extent that I do not believe that any batsmen in the world can match him in that aspect.”
“His fitness is demonstrated by the amount of long innings he plays seemingly without being tired. All these qualities are great examples for any youngster to appreciate and are things that they can learn from Virat Kohli to become better cricketers,” the right-handed batsman added.
Kohli is arguably the best batsmen in the world right now. His batting has gone to a different level altogether since he took the captaincy. Since the tour of West Indies in 2016, he has scored six double centuries with four of them coming in consecutive series. Kohli would be eyeing to continue in the same form when the Test series gets underway.