Former Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara on Monday said that India's Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have followed the footsteps of India's celebrated batting duo, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly.
Talking about both sets of players during an interaction session on Star Sports' show 'Cricket Connected', Sangakkara also drew similarities between both the pairs across the two eras of cricket, saying that both sets of players rely on 'technically correct' and 'orthodox' batting technique and don't rely too much on 'muscle power'.
"If you look at Rahul and Dada, both of them are orthodox batsmen. They play beautiful cricket shots and are very technically correct, Dravid may be a little bit more so, but the ability to be as destructive with such rate and precision stroke-making is something that has to be really admired," said Sangakkara.
"If you take the modern-day game, India has two of the best players in Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, who play orthodox cricket but who are just absolutely destructive in any format of the game. You don’t have to muscle the ball or put too much effort or look ugly doing it, they just play good cricket shots and results come."
Talking further about Kohli and Rohit, Sangakkara said that the duo deserves respect because they maintain consistency despite India playing a high volume of cricket throughout the year. (ALSO READ: Steve Smith reveals one thing he admires about Virat Kohli)
“There is something very special about Virat and Rohit. That fact that rules have changed and maybe run-scoring might have become slightly easier in one-day cricket, but the fact remains that to be so consistent across all formats, they're so consistent in T20 cricket," said the former Sri Lankan captain.
"It’s incredibly hard, the volume of cricket that India athletes play. So, I think you have to have a lot of respect for Rohit and Virat but understand that it’s all because of the players that have gone before and have done all the hard work then as well. So, it’s a knock-on effect, so in every era, there’s always a defining pair and in the modern era, its Rohit and Virat for India for sure."
