The star Indian opener Rohit Sharma has hailed the Indian skipper Virat Kohli for his consistency and “unbelievable hunger for success” over the years.
Well, in a video, released by the ICC ahead of India’s T20 World Cup match against Afghanistan in Abu Dhabi today. Virat Kohli’s teammates and other cricketing associates including the likes of Rohit Sharma, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, among others paid tribute to the skipper, who is playing his last tournament as the skipper in the limited-over format.
Rohit Sharma, who is hailed as the favorite to be the next white-ball India skipper, heaped praises on Virat Kohli for improving as a cricketer every year since his debut in 2008. He said:
“His hunger for success is just unbelievable. It’s not easy to just go out there and do it consistently, which he has done so well. He came in 2008, and he’s evolved as a cricketer since then. I mean, over the years he’s added little, little cents to his game and just evolved every year. All those years, as I see, he’s put his best foot forward.”
Ravi Ashwin also lauded Virat Kohli for his ability to succeed in all three formats of the game. He feels that Virat is someone who plays in any format the way it should be done. He said:
“Virat is someone who genuinely plays T20 cricket the way it should be played, ODI cricket the way it should be played, and so with Test cricket. The reason is he doesn’t change much and has similar shots and similar game plans in all formats,”
Australia’s star player and Virat’s Royal Challengers Bangalore team-mate Glenn Maxwell was also full of praises for Virat’s determination to keep getting better in the game. He said:
“Watching him close-up, watching him train, he is competitive and so driven, you can understand why he is as good as he is. You can understand why he is as good as he is the amount of work he puts into his game and the amount of determination he has to get better and better.”
Apart from them, Virat Kohli himself talked about his journey as the skipper of team India in the limited-overs format.
Looking back at his ‘unbelievable’ 13-year-old journey, the Indian skipper said that he had never imagined coming this far as an Indian cricketer. He also made it very clear that from now on his main focus will be to win India games from any situation. Virat Kohli said:
“If you look at things from the worldly point of view all the time then you are not focussing on things that can be miraculous. 13 years down the line, I couldn’t have imagined I would come this far to be honest (chuckles). But it’s been unbelievable, it’s been a ride full of amazing moments, amazing memories. Just the pride to play for India, getting to play so many games for India, for me that’s the most special thing. And the focal point of my career till now is I want to find ways to win a game of cricket from any place and I’ll give absolutely every I have to be able to do that.”
He also expressed that he is content with what he has achieved in the last decade. He said:
“At this time, I am in a very happy and content space in terms of the journey of my career. I am very happy. I am a very happy man sitting here 13 years later.”
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