Virat Kohli's captaincy much more aggressive than MS Dhoni: Kim Hughes

Virat Kohli’s brief captaincy stint has impressed former Australian captain Kim Hughes

Former Australian captain Kim Hughes has expressed his approval of Virat Kohli's style of captaincy in Test Cricket and believes that the 26-year-old is set to lead India across all formats for a very long time to come. The middle-order batsman led the side during the opening Test of the four-match Test series against Australia in Adelaide last year in the absence of regular skipper MS Dhoni and was appointed full-time Test captain after the 33-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman decided to retire from the longer format of the game at the end of the third Test in Melbourne.

"Much as I admire Dhoni as a player, I have found him letting the game drift at times across formats especially in Test matches. I was very happy to see Virat Kohli being made Test captain and I believe he is the man who should be leading India for a long time. He brings a direction and purpose to Indian captaincy," Hughes said in an interview to PTI.

He also felt that the right-hander’s intent to keep the scoreboard ticking along is a quality that will keep him in good stead and added that he was one of the main reasons for the present Indian team performing better than most others that have toured Australia previously.

“What caught my attention in Kohli's batting this time was his running between the wickets during Test matches as well as during recent World Cup matches. This might be a little thing, but that's the urgency or purpose shown by a leader. This Indian team looked better than teams that had toured earlier and primarily because of Kohli," he said.

India won't win back-to-back World Cups: Hughes

He also tipped India to make the semifinals of the ongoing 2015 World Cup, but didn't expect them to defend their title successfully as he doesn’t think that they have the bowling to match the likes of Australia and New Zealand, both of whom are hot favourites to reach the final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on March 29.

"Australia, New Zealand, India and South Africa will play the semis and India won't cross the semifinals hurdle as they don't have the bowling. New Zealand have the best bowling attack with Vettori being central to their plans. West Indies have been very poor and Pakistan unbelievably disappointing. Also I don't see any plan in England's World Cup strategy," the 61-year-old said.