Ravi Shastri likens Virat Kohli to Vivian Richards and Imran Khan
Team India coach Ravi Shastri much like the whole world is an avid admirer of the legend that is Virat Kohli and in a recent interview, he went on to compare his captain to two of cricket's greatest ever players and personalities.
Speaking to Cricbuzz, Shastri lavished praise upon Kohli the batsman and the captain after he sweeped all of ICC's awards for the calander year of 2018.
According to the 56-year-old, nobody will ever achieve what Kohli has done in 2018.
"Starting with the ICC awards (achieving all awards in the same year), I don't think anyone will ever do it again. It is something very rare because you need two things to happen to win all awards in a single year. You need to be a captain of a very good cricket team across formats, that allows you to win two awards as the best captain of the ICC Test team and the ICC ODI team. So obviously your team is one of the best in the world and it has never happened in Indian cricket before. So an Indian captain gets it, and I want to focus on those two awards more than the personal awards that he has won.
"You will not get a repeat of that in these two biggest formats of the game. And there is no award for ICC T20 captain. So your team has to be that good that you can win those awards. Whether we get accolades from our guys back home or international media, I give two hoots. When my captain wins those two awards, that's a tribute to the team. So the boys can be at peace. And Virat knows it," Shastri said.
He went on to add that to do what Kohli has done after being in immense pressure to perform, is nothing short of phenomenal.
"To carry that kind of pressure of captaincy and clean up all the individual ICC awards as well is phenomenal. We have had great players who struggled to handle pressure when they were captain. Then we had some captains who didn't know what number to bat at - when they are good enough to go at number three, but they chose to go at six or seven.
"But here is a guy who is as dominant as Sir Vivian Richards. The closest I have seen to the great man. Virat is in your face, he wants to dominate and has a work ethic like no one else. Whether it comes to discipline, training, sacrifice or self-denial, it is unbelievable. I think India is lucky to have a leader of that sort. He reminds me of Imran Khan in many ways — in the way he sets the example and sets the standards, and goes about defining it in his own way and leading from the front.
"Virat is special, absolutely special, for someone to get runs in dominant fashion in South Africa, in Australia and in England. England was icing on the cake. Here's a guy who has got 140 runs in 10 innings (2014) and then gets 590 runs with two masters of bowling in James Anderson and Stuart Broad. You won't get better than that with the Dukes ball. And to get those runs as captain in a team that is being beaten is phenomenal," Shastri said in praise of his batting and leadership qualities.
However, he went on to explain that there is room for improvement for him as a captain despite improving immensely and winning series Down Under and New Zealand.
"As far as I am concerned, tactically, there is still room for plenty of improvement as captain. He has gotten better and better, and better, and I thought in the Australian Test series, tactically he outsmarted Australia. I still see more room across formats for him to evolve. As a captain, Virat will evolve further," he explained.
Kohli however remains India's best captain in Test cricket in terms of win percentage after at least five matches at the helm. Till date, Kohli has captained India in 46 Tests and won 26 of them and lost 10 and has a win percent of 56.52. Mahendra Singh Dhoni is next with a percentage of 45 from 60 Tests as captain -- winning 27 and losing 18.
