Dhanraj Pillay sees a lot of himself in 'aggressive' Kohli

There is nothing called good, bad or ugly in sport, especially when you are representing India. And who would know it better than former Indian hockey captain Dhanraj Pillay! Yes, the man, who is easily the Sachin Tendulkar of Indian hockey, raises a toast for Indian captain Virat Kohli.

Speaking exclusively with Sportskeeda on Friday, Dhanraj, who is not known to mince words, straight away got to the point about seeing a reflection of himself in Kohli. “Whenever I see Virat on TV, I often feel aye yaar yeto aapne jaisa banda hai (he is like me). When you are playing for India, the country comes first and then your name, state and religion. Virat replicates that sentiment whenever he takes the field for India. He knows how to motivate his players. I like it a lot,” he said.

Dhanraj made it clear that there is nothing more important than winning and captain Kohli only does that for his team. “There is no question of bad boys or good boys. He is fighting for his country. When you enter the field, you want to win all the matches. You just can’t go in and have a fun game and come out. The entire country is looking up to him and cricket is such a popular game that it has become a religion in the country,” Dhanraj said.

The 52-year old hockey legend, who has made this country proud with his skill-set for 15 years, also said every young cricketer should learn from the way Kohli plays his game. “I love to see every player like Virat on the field. His attitude is very good. Virat is Virat. Too good. See his fielding standard and he has so much of aggression and his batting technique is so good. I watch cricket at times and I am so excited to see the fitness level of Kohli. He is so good there. So many youngsters get inspired by his fitness level,” he said.

“When I was playing, a lot of the youngsters then took to hockey after seeing my fitness level,” Dhanraj said about his golden days and added: “When Dilip Tirkey used to play for India, he was a calm player and I also played under him and there is nothing wrong with that. There are two types of captains, one is who is calm and the other who is aggressive. But the one who is aggressive walks away with the advantage of keeping the team charged. It is important to have enthusiasm.”

Dhanraj then talked about the energy level of the team, which only one man can do it all the time. And Kohli is the man for it. “When Virat plays IPL, pura team ko charge karke rakhta hai. Ajay Jadeja and Mohd Kaif were some of the fielders who kept the enthusiasm of the team intact. The opposition is also on the backfoot if you are aggressive as a captain,” he said.

Before Dhanraj signed off to finish his pending work from home assignment, he remembered his golden era and his aggressive brand of hockey. “When I used to play against Pakistan, their players were always wary of the fact that I would go after them. It used to be like that and if it is India-Pakistan match is happening, it has to be a fighting game. If you don’t have aggression, you can’t fight. This is applicable for any sportsperson,” Dhanraj said.