The former batter hailed Kohli as the 'pivot' for Test cricket viewership
Former India and Royal Challengers Bengaluru keeper-batter Dinesh Karthik heaped praise on his former teammate Virat Kohli after announcing his retirement from Test cricket.
Kohli, after 13 years of playing the format and amassing 9,230 runs from 123 matches, including 30 hundreds and 31 fifties, hung up his baggy blue on Monday.
As tributes poured in from all over the world, RCB mentor Karthik specified the value Kohli had brought to Tests as a players and more importantly the intensity as a captain.
“It’s a massive (loss) in the context of Indian cricket but Test cricket as a format itself. We all know that the most watched format these days is T20 cricket. In many ways, Virat was the front-runner to show how Test needs to be played and how much the format is to be valued,” Karthik told Sky Sports.
“We are losing him at a point at a crucial point in the cricketing ecosystem because it is a conundrum about where Test cricket stands right now. And Virat Kohli was the pivots for the game, not only how it was played, but made Tests enjoyable to watch. In the broader context of the game, it is a massive loss,” he added.
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Karthik put Kohli among the greatest batters in Indian cricket history alongside Sachin Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar and Rahul Dravid.
“Without a shadow of doubt. We had legends of the game… the Gavaskars, the Tendulkars and Virat Kohli is up there with Rahul Dravid and the others. But more than what he did with the bat, it was how he captained India that was most important – how he instilled fear within the opposition. The intensity with which he played across all five days of a Test match was really the admirable part,” Karthik said.
When questioned about Kohli’s possible replacement, the 2007 T20 World Cup said there’s no even close.
“Very tough to even think that anyone can come close to what he has achieved in the past decade or so. He was the phenom who gave importance to Test cricket and put in all the work for it. I still remember how he was taken apart in England on his first tour, but he came back after working his technique the next time,” the RCB mentor said.
When asked where does Kohli stands among the ‘Fab Four’ of the current generation alongside Joe Root, Steve Smith and Kane Williamson, Karthik replied:
“I will be biased and says Virat stands at No.1 purely because of what he did for India and the world of sport.”
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