The final few days of the Mumbai Test proved to be quite an eventful affair with James Anderson taking a jibe on Virat Kohli’s performance, stating that technically he had not been tested as much on Indian tracks, which was followed by an on-field verbal altercation between him and R Ashwin during the final few moments of the game.
A few former cricketers have voiced their opinion on Kohli’s ability to excel in all conditions and joining in the chorus is 1983 World Cup winning captain Kapil Dev, who has said that he not seen a player like Kohli and added that the 28-year-old had it in him to do well in all conditions.
“Virat can very well play in all conditions. He is simply playing fabulous cricket. It is great to see an Indian play like this. I have never seen a cricketer like him,"Kapil said.
Another legend-Inzamam-Ul-Haq- came out in defense of Kohli, asking whether one gets a certificate if he succeeded in English conditions and said it didn’t matter where one got Test match runs.
“Does Anderson mean to say that if you get runs in England you get some sort of certificate that makes you a quality batsman. Don’t the English and Australian players struggle when they play in the sub-continent? Does that mean they are bad players or weak teams? To me it does not matter where you get runs because in Test matches runs are runs,” Inzamam asked.
During the 2014 tour to England, Kohli had the worst five Test matches of his career, where he made 134 runs in 10 innings at an average of 13.40. However, since that dismal tour, the right-hander has bounced back in emphatic fashion, succeeding in almost every condition and is at present the only player to be ranked in the Top 5 in all three lists and his exploits with the bat is also providing him with a certain level of confidence as far as his leadership is concerned.
Kohli will look to carry his form from the Mumbai Test into the Chennai Test and hope to finish the year off on a high.
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