Virat Kohli struggled with his form for a long time and went without scoring a century in international cricket for 1020 days. But the wait was finally over when he scored a ton against Afghanistan in the Asia Cup Super 4 clash to bring up his maiden T20I century.
The knock earned him high praise from BCCI President Sourav Ganguly, who had no hesitation in saying that Kohli is ‘skilful’ as a player than he used to be during his playing days. Both players, who led India in all formats for a considerable period of time, are known for an aggressive brand of captaincy, but Ganguly feels that Kohli is a much better player.
“I don’t think that (captaincy) should be the comparison… The comparison should be in terms of skill as a player. I think he is more skilful than I’m,” Ganguly said of Kohli in the ‘Ranveer Show’ on YouTube.
Kohli was seen in superb touch during his knock of unbeaten 122 off just 61 deliveries against Afghanistan on Thursday. Ganguly showered praises on Kohli and said that, “We played in different generations, and we played a lot of cricket. I played in my generation, and he will continue playing, probably playing more games than I did.
“Currently, I have played more than what he has but he’ll get past that. He is tremendous.”
“Cricket has become a bit more hectic, busy. COVID for the last two seasons has made it even tougher because of quarantine and all that went on. But the rewards are good.”
Kohli’s century against Afghanistan put him on par with Ricky Ponting for the record of 71 international centuries. He is just behind Sachin Tendulkar, who has 100 centuries to his name, for the most number of hundreds scored in international cricket.
The 33-year-old is currently placed in seventh position in the list of most runs scored in international cricket. He has 24002 runs to his name in 468 matches, at an excellent average of 53.81. The players ahead of him in the list are Tendulkar, Kumar Sangakkara, Ricky Ponting, Mahela Jayawardene, Jacques Kallis and Rahul Dravid.
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