Virat Kohli finished as India's most successful captain in Test cricket.
Former Indian cricketer Dinesh Karthik has revealed his conversation with former India skipper Virat Kohli ahead of the Edgbaston Test against England in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. Karthik disclosed that Kohli acknowledged that his Test captaincy helped him get the best out of himself as a batter and viewed it as a turning point of his career in the longest format.
“I met him a few days ago, and we were just chatting generally. And this topic about captaincy came up,” Karthik said on the Sky Cricket podcast. “And he said, you know, people think I’m a great Test cricketer and I enjoyed my Test batting, which I did. But the fact is that my getting my captaincy was the best thing to happen to my batting,” he added.
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The 39-year-old drew parallels in India’s most successful captain, Kohli’s remark, with what current Test captain Shubman Gill had said about his batting and captaincy.
“Why I’m saying that is the same line that was used by Shubman Gill as well,” said Karthik. “He said, I used to bat differently. But now, after I’ve got captaincy, I almost, when I’m batting, think this is what my team requires — rather than me wanting to do something individually as a batter, which I thought, wow.”Now, this is something the world of cricket has to take notice of, because here’s a man who has the appetite, who has the skill, who’s got the technique. But now he’s got the mindset as well that says, I’m a captain. I’m going to lead from the front, lead off the front foot. And we saw that in the last Test match.”I’m sure there are going to be a lot more Test matches for us to observe him. But it looks like he’s on the right path.”
Kohli led India to the most wins in the SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia) countries and won 18, lost six and drew one (a washout against Bangladesh) out of 25 series. Kohli also holds the record for most runs (5864 in 68 Tests) as India captain. Gill, on the other hand, is relatively new as Test captain. He captained the national side in just two Tests so far and led India to a historic 336-run victory over England, their biggest win in the SENA nations. However, India lost the first Test at Headingley Test despite five individual centuries from the batters.
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The 25-year-old was under scrutiny for his poor stats in SENA countries, averaging just 14.66 in England. He answered his critics, scoring 585 runs in just four innings across two Tests, averaging a whopping 146.25. The batter has already amassed a double century and two hundreds in the ongoing series with three Tests to go. The Indian skipper is now just 107 runs behind Kohli’s tally of 692 runs for the most runs in a debut Test series as captain.
The right-hand batter has shattered multiple records in the series. He became the Indian with the highest aggregate runs (430) in a Test. Since Gavaskar, he became the first Indian batter to score a double hundred and a ton in the same Test. He now holds the record for the highest score in an innings in England Tests.
Currently, the series is level at 1-1. The third Test will be played at the home of cricket, Lord’s, from July 10.
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