Dilip Vengsarkar reveals how Virat Kohli got senior team call-up with century as opener
Former BCCI chairman of selectors Dilip Vengsarkar revealed how he noticed Virat Kohli's talent before making senior team debut. Kohli, who made his debut in 2008 against Sri Lanka, is now one of the biggest names in the sporting world. Kohli has slammed 70 international tons is only behind Sachin Tendulkar (100) and Ricky Ponting (71) in most centuries list.
Vengsarkar revealed that Kohli impressed him with his India A stint an Emerging Players tournament in Australia. Kohli, who played in the middle order for Team India, impressed Vengsarkar by scoring a century from the opening position. (Also Read | Former Indian quick draws parallels between captaincy styles of Virat Kohli, Sourav Ganguly)
"In the first match against New Zealand, they had scored 240-250 and Virat Kohli was asked to open the innings and he scored 123*. What I appreciated was that even after his hundred, he went on to win the game for his team and he remained not out. That really impressed me and there I thought that here is a boy that we must push into the Indian team because he was mentally mature and of course we picked him and the rest is history," Vengsarkar told Sportskeeda in a Live Facebook session.
Vengsarkar said they had to pick players who were fringe players or who would play for India very soon from the tournament and Kohli was chosen. (Also Read | Babar Azam opens up on comparison with Virat Kohli)
"When there was an emerging players’ tournament in Australia, I was the chairman of the selection committee (for the Indian team). We had decided at that point of time that we must pick players who were fringe players or who would play for India very soon, especially the U-23 boys. So we had picked Virat Kohli in the team," Vengsarkar added.
Kohli is often called as the greatest batsman of the current generation as he holds the top spot in ICC ODI rankings, 2nd in Tests and 10th in T20Is.
