Virender Sehwag, the former Indian opening batsman, has predicted that Virat Kohli will be one of the best Indian skippers in the time to come. The legendary Indian batsman uttered such big words following Kohli’s phenomenal track record as the Indian skipper across all three formats of the game.
Virat grabbed the Test captaincy at the age of 26 after MS Dhoni’s sudden retirement from the format, back in 2014. Since then, he has led the Indian side on 38 occasions and created a number of records. As he still has a long way to go in his career, Shewag has heaped praise on his upcoming stint as the leader of the Indian cricket team.
“No skipper constantly thinks about the number of matches he has won during his captaincy. Our work as a captain is to play well and guide the team to the victory. As captain, Kohli's performance is above par and he has improved in batting as well. He'll be one of the best India captains in the time to come. There's no doubt about that,” said Sehwag in a TV news show.
In all the 38 matches he captained so far, he never went with the same playing XI. Each time he experimented with a different combination. However, after an all-round performance in the Nottingham Test, the 29-year-old Indian captain might look forward to breaking his own trend in the next face-off.
At the same time, the fitness of spinner R Ashwin will play the key role in team selection. As he sustained an injury in the previous match, his availability for the next game is yet to be confirmed. If he misses out, Kohli will be forced to go with a new combination for the 39th time in his captaincy career.
The fourth and the penultimate Test begin on Thursday at the Rose Bowl cricket ground at Southampton. England is leading the series 2-1 and once again it will be a do-or-die situation for India.