Former India captain Mohammad Azharuddin heaped praise on skipper Virat Kohli and believes that as long as the explosive batsman is fit, he will score 100 international hundreds in his illustrious career. (LIVE SCORECARD, IND VS AUS, 3RD ODI)
'King' Kohli slammed his 39th ODI hundred to lead India to a series-levelling win against Australia in the 2nd ODI in Adelaide. Sharing the spotlight with the skipper was MS Dhoni, who smashed the winning runs with his starry fifty. (LIVE BLOG, IND vs AUS, 3RD ODI)
India won the 2nd ODI by 6 wickets, setting a perfectly poised finale at the Melbourne Cricket Ground
“Virat Kohli’s consistency is very good. If he stays fit, he will reach the 100-century mark. He is way ahead of many great players as far as his consistency is concerned. He is a great player and India have hardly lost whenever he has scored a century,” Azharuddin told Aaj Tak.
The former captain also lauded Dhoni and Dinesh Karthik for their gritty performance on helping India getting the much-needed win in Adelaide.
“If you look at the trend whenever India’s top three score runs, we go on to win the match. Unfortunately, in the previous match we lost three early wickets, Rohit Sharma did score a century but we lost. But today, Virat Kohli batted extremely well and MS Dhoni too played well. Dhoni even got tired in the end but he kept his wicket intact. Dinesh Karthik also batted well. Overall, India’s performance was very good,” Azhar added.
Former skipper Dhoni, who seemed quite tired from the heat, blasted his signature six to finish off matters and scoring the winning runs to bring India home. He remained unbeaten on 55 off 54 balls while Karthik scored 25 of 14, where the duo stitched up a 57-run stand for the fifth-wicket.
"If you are out of practice and not playing domestic cricket, it becomes difficult to adjust to international cricket. I think that was reason Dhoni played slow innings in the first ODI but today he batted well. It was a match-winning knock," said Azharuddin.
Former Team India captain Sourav Ganguly as well was all praise for Kohli, terming his knock as 'outstanding'.
"I've seen a lot of great players. I've seen Sachin, I've played over 300 games myself but for Virat Kohli, all I will say is -- Wow. Outstanding and he is an all-time great and the next six years or whatever he plays, he will be great for India," Ganguly said in IndiaTV's show Cricket Ki Baat.
The stage is set and the bragging rights up for grabs at the MCG, India play Australia in the 3rd and final ODI of the series on January 18.
