The Indian skipper Virat Kohli’s on-field behavior has been immensely scrutinized during the ongoing four-match Test series between India and Australia. He faced a lot of backlashes for his aggressive behavior in the recently concluded second Test match in Perth. Now, a day after Indian Head Coach Ravi Shastri called Kohli ‘an absolute gentleman,’ Aussie fast bowler Mitchell Starc has said that the Indian skipper is ‘fantastic to play under, as a captain.’ Starc and Kohli have previously shared the dressing room in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).
Talking about Kohli further, Starc said that Virat is a fantastic player and it is up to India how they continue their cricket in the remaining games of the series. Kohli got the captaincy reins of RCB from Kiwi bowler Daniel Vettori midway in the 2012 season. Whereas, Starc was a part of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the previous edition of IPL before being released by the franchise due to the unavailability of the Aussie seamer in IPL 2019. Starc had also missed the previous edition of the IPL due to injury.
Describing the same, Starc said, “I’ve played a couple of IPLs with Virat and he’s been fantastic to play under, as a captain. Obviously, he’s a fantastic player. The way India play this series and go about their cricket, it’s up to them.”
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Earlier, when Indian Head Coach Ravi Shastri was asked about Virat’s on-field behavior, he termed him ‘an absolute gentleman,’ whereas Matthew Hayden had said he is ‘very passionate and very emotional.’
During the pre-match press conference, Shastri said, “Fantastic – why, what’s wrong with his behavior? People can question; as far as we’re concerned, he’s an absolute gentleman.”
On the other hand, Hayden said that Virat plays cricket in a very competitive spirit. He feels that Kohli’s approach is very animated; very passionate; very emotional, but according to him, the latter never crossed as everything remained on the field.
