Former Indian captain Rahul Dravid has recently lauded the present Indian captain Virat Kohli for setting an unimaginable batting standard.
The present no.1-ranked Test and ODI batsman Virat Kohli is consistently playing great cricket for a long time.
Another legendary Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar set the high standard in his batting during his long international career. Many experts, including the present head coach of India A and India U19 cricket team, Rahul Dravid, thought that some of Tendulkar’s great international records could never be surpassed. However, Kohli’s unstoppable determination has converted that impossible remark to the possible.
Dravid never thought that anyone could beat Sachin Tendulkar’s 49 ODI centuries record. But Kohli is brilliantly chasing Tendulkar on this matter. At present, Kohli has already scored the second most ODI centuries as he has scored 41 ODI centuries in 219 ODI innings.
Talking about this, Dravid said during the Star ReImagine awards in Mumbai, “Virat keeps getting better. He is setting standards that we probably thought could never be achieved. Sachin got 49 hundreds in one day cricket and we thought, at least I thought, could never be achieved. Now Virat is 10 away or close to it. So tribute to him when it comes to reinventing or reimagining yourself.”
Virat Kohli is constantly reinventing his game – Rahul Dravid
Dravid further praised Kohli’s constant improvement and his ability to learn from the failures. The former Indian captain gave some brief examples to understand this improvement process. He also mentioned about Kohli’s improvement in leadership quality.
Dravid added, “Thing about him is even if he has a bad tour, like the 2014 tour to England or when he was not as successful when he first went to Australia, when he goes back again, he comes out a better player. He is constantly looking to get better. The same extends to his captaincy.
“When you look at some of the shots he played six months ago… you see him hitting the sweep shot and you think he didn’t play it six months ago. When I first saw him he didn’t play the short ball so well and then next time you see him working at it. He is constantly reinventing his game.”
Rahul Dravid also lauded MS Dhoni
On the other hand, Dravid also praised the former Indian captain and present limited-overs wicketkeeper-batsman MS Dhoni. Dhoni’s special skills to handle calmly any pressure situations have amazed Dravid. Dravid feels lucky to see him in Indian jersey. The Wall is confident that Dhoni’s presence will work on India’s favour in the upcoming Cricket World Cup.
Dravid claimed, “The beauty about MS is that he plays a lot of these big tournaments, as they do not mean a lot. They obviously do. He is able to see a bigger picture. To say you are not being defined by that game. And it’s a hard thing to do. He does feel the pressure as we have seen in this IPL at times. But he is able to stay relaxed as if he is playing another match with friends in Ranchi. It’s a special skill to have. To have an exam and approach it like it’s not an exam. We are lucky to have someone when the pressure is on at the back end of the game and can approach that way. It will definitely work on India’s favour (at the World Cup).”
The 2019 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup will run between 30th May and 14th July in England and Wales. In this 12th edition of Cricket World Cup, a total of top ten teams will participate. The two-time World Cup champions India will begin their campaign on 5th June when they will play against South Africa at Southampton.
Talking about the favourites to win the upcoming Cricket World Cup, Dravid picked up India and the host side England. Meanwhile, he also believes that Australia is a favourite team to reach the semi-finals along with South Africa or Pakistan.