Indian skipper Virat Kohli played a memorable knock of 149 runs against England in Birmingham in the first innings and helped India out of a precarious situation. Currently, India is chasing a tricky target of 194 and still need 84 runs to take a lead in the series. The onus is again on the Indian skipper to take his team to a series-defining victory. Meanwhile, Chris Gayle, the Windies batsman, hailed Kohli’s leadership skills and the courageous approach he employs on the cricket pitch.
As quoted in Times of India (TOI), Gayle said, “Virat as a captain is not in the face of his teammates. He lets you do your (own) thing. He is fearless and that shows in his cricket. Mentally he is very strong. When you can get your players to fight for you and your country, that’s when you are a good leader. He is definitely inspirational. I saw highlights of Virat’s knock and it was just fantastic. He has the ability to inspire his whole team. The way he batted with the lower order on Thursday, it just showed that his batting partners wanted to perform for their captain.”
Back in 2014, Virat toured to England and contributed just 134 runs in the five-match series against the Brits. Since then, the Delhi lad buckled down to improve his cricketing prowess and is currently one of India’s most dependable batsmen in international cricket.
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Zainab Abbas, the senior sports anchor-cum-journalist from Pakistan, has always been the admirer of great cricketers and this time it was her turn to praise King Kohli. She tweeted “King K” after the mind-blowing knock from the Indian skipper in Birmingham. Despite facing a lot of criticism in the past for praising Indian cricketers, she has never let her shoulder down and has always admired top-class performances on the 22 yards.
King K! #ENGvIND
— zainab abbas (@ZAbbasOfficial) August 2, 2018
Meanwhile, former Kiwi skipper Brendon McCullum is the newest entrant to the list to reaffirm Kohli’s dominance in the world cricket right now. Both of them play for the same franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and no wonder they enjoy each other’s company. Brendon has previously come out in praise for Kohli and even this time he has reinstated his brilliance.
McCullum, in his latest tweet, has showered praises on his IPL teammate and has profoundly announced that he is the best batsman of this generation. “Oh yes and this @imVkohli is rather very very good!” he wrote in his tweet.
Oh yes and this @imVkohli is rather very very good!
— Brendon McCullum (@Bazmccullum) August 4, 2018
As usual, the onus is now on Kohli to win the match as he is playing on 43 in the chase of 194 runs. Dinesh Karthik is looking solid with him in the middle and the duo is expected to cross the line for their team. But they will have to face some incisive bowling from the hosts who will be pumped up to pick the remaining five wickets of the opposition.
