From the moment vibrant Virat Kohli took over as the captain of team India for tests, the comparisons obviously became inevitable, but former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly on Sunday said it is not fair to equate the leadership skills of Mahendra Singh Dhoni and newly-appointed Test captain Virat Kohli, who will, with the passage of time, become better.
He said, “There will be a strong urge compare Kohli and Dhoni. I don’t think the two can be compared and it would be unfair to do so as well.”
Appreciating the meticulous captaincy ingredients of Virat, he said, “Kohli has got the job now and it is his for the near foreseeable future. He has got has got all the attributes for leadership and I think he will do well because he is aggressive and wants to win all the time. He will lead with passion and it will show on the field. And he will get better with experience and grow into this role.”
Recently, Kohli took over the Test captaincy after Dhoni retired midway through the series against Australia. Although India eventually lost 0-2 but the way he has led the team has certainly justified his newly assigned role. Particularly his chemistry and encouragement with the young team members like Rahul is really worth noticing.
Ganguly also said that Kohli was impressive in his short captaincy stint. Kohli himself has also successfully recovered from his failure in England and scored four hundreds during this series, accumulating 692 runs, a record for an Indian batsman against Australia in any encounter. Thus, so far he has displayed an immaculate balance between his captaincy and the crucial role of a delivering batsman.
Ganguly also pointed towards the inconsistent and weaker bowling attack of India, he added, “Length and line bowling is a basic at this international level and is very important. Look at what Josh Hazlewood did on the fifth day. He bowled 8 overs for just 3 runs. He kept bowling one line and length and that’s just basic bowling. Indian bowlers simply have to find a way to do it. The talent is there. They are consistently bowling at 140-plus and you cannot be ordinary bowlers if you keep bowling at that speed. But discipline in Test cricket is always important and a key factor. Hopefully someone will be around to tell them that and they will learn it from this tour.”
Let us hope that the vital judgment given by dada will prove truthful and Kohli will lead India to greater glories.