Former England captain and one of the better experts in the game, Nasser Hussain, shared his views on Virat Kohli’s captaincy and opined why he was fond of his leadership skills.
Hussain, who represented England in 96 Tests and 88 ODIs, opined that while Kohli wasn’t as cool as MS Dhoni when it came to temperament, his winning mentality was such that he would pick him as the one player to bat while chasing in white-ball cricket.
“First thing I would say is he’s his own man. It’s very easy coming after MS Dhoni and think, well, I’ve got to be like MS Dhoni, I’ve got to be this calm, calculated finisher, cool, ice man. Virat Kohli could never be the cool ice man. Virat Kohli wears his heart on his sleeve. If you watch Virat Kohli play football in the morning, I worry about some of his own players because he’s so keen to win, he could do a double-footed tackle at waist height to be honest because he just wants to win and that’s why in a run chase in white-ball cricket, if you ask me to name one person I want in a run chase in white-ball cricket, it would be Kohli because he sees that winning target and that’s all he’s interested in. So, he’s his own man,” Hussain said on Star Sports’ show Cricket Connected.
Even during the lockdown, Kohli has been sharing his workout videos where there seems to be some competition going on between him and all-rounder Hardik Pandya, as two of the fittest players in the Indian team continue to add new twists to each other’s workout.
Hussain also added that while Kohli might not have to do much with selection, given India’s struggle for the No. 4 batsman in ICC World Cup 2019, selection-related issues needed to be sorted out.
“He’s got better at certain things or still certain areas I’d like to see Kohli improve on. I call him the tinker man. Every over, you have to change the field, he’s running up changing things, he tinkers a little bit too much. Selection – I know people say what’s that got to do with Kohli, but you got to have a selection plan. I think India did a lot of things well, I’m not sure selection is one of them. Coming to a World Cup, not knowing who your No. 4 is when you got so many great batsmen in India, their selection issues that need to be sorted out, but the whole point of captaincy is to win games of cricket. And if you look at Kohli’s record as a captain, it is right up there with the best there’s ever been,” he added.
