Former England skipper Michael Vaughan rates Virat Kohli’s 149 as one the best Tests innings he has ever seen. In fact, it wasn’t the most elegant Kohli’s innings. He gave respect to the England bowlers as well as the conditions in the initial stages of his knock.
Furthermore, he was gifted two lives by Dawid Malan, first one while he was on 21, the second life was given when he crossed the 50-run mark. Meanwhile, Kohli kept hanging in there and once he got settled, he took the attack to the England bowlers. However, Kohli was the lone warrior as he kept losing his partners at the other end.
Kohli played a fine knock to bail out India out of trouble.
Michael Vaughan said Kohli’s innings will go in the top drawer given the match situation as India were behind.
“Sometimes you just have to respect that someone’s played incredibly, It’s right up there with one of the best Test match innings that you can see, because of the context of the game. You look at the next highest scorer for India, it’s 26 and he’s gone and got 149. 92 for the last two wickets in which [Ishant] Sharma and [Umesh Yadav] contributed six. So that tells you pretty much everything,” Vaughan told BBC Test match special.
Michael Vaughan went on add that now Virat Kohli has found the right confidence. Former England captain also decoded the success mantra behind Kohli’s innings. Kohli took his time in the initial phase and then catapulted his attack on England’s bowlers.
“Virat has found confidence. It was an incredible inning. He probably realized when the seventh wicket fell, every time he goes out to bat, that the shoulders of the whole team is with him. The way he maneuvered the ball into the gaps, the way that he played at the swinging ball, he hung in there, hung in there and got about 57,” the former England captain said.
Vaughan went on to add that great players can be lethal when they a good start to the series. Kohli has got himself the momentum he needed at the start of the tour. Thus, he would like to keep on the impetus for the remainder of the tour.
“It’s a five-match series and Virat has got off to a flier, a flier with 149. Great players, once they get into a rhythm, once they get into form and once they get into confidence, they’re sometimes very difficult to stop. Great players love the stage and he went out there today, the crowd booed him. He’s great because he looks around goes ‘alright then, you boo me I’ll hang around and make your team spend a bit more time in the field.”