Irfan Pathan Reveals the Similarity Between Sourav Ganguly & Virat Kohli

India have produced several captains over the years and former India captain Sourav Ganguly and current captain Virat Kohli are among them. Although the debate can go on who has been India's best skipper among them, both Ganguly and Kohli have similarities as captain as both are known for their aggressive captaincy and never give up attitude.

Apart from the above qualities, there is another striking similarity between the two and former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan revealed that recently.

“He is very similar to Sourav Ganguly as well. A guy who backs his youngsters really, really well. Virat Kohli has that aura about him, that he goes out of his way to back the youngsters,” Pathan said in the latest episode of Star Sports chat show Cricket Connected. “We have seen that with Rishabh Pant, we have seen the press conferences, he goes and says, ‘No, we need to back a guy like Rishabh Pant purely on his potential’.”

While the ICC T20 World Cup has postponed, it has opened the window for the 13th edition of Indian Premier League. Moreover, India will also travel to Australia in December where they will paly a four-match Test series, and former captain and now the BCCI president Sourav Ganguly had said that he expects the team to win again. Last time India won the series against them when they toured to Australia in 208 under Virat Kohli's leadership.

“I have said that to Virat also,” Ganguly said to India Today in an interview. “I said, ‘because you’re Virat Kohli, your standards are high. When you walk to play, when you walk with your team, I, watching on TV, don’t expect you to just play well against Australia. I expect you to win. So for me, that is what it is. Because you have set the standards. It’s not anybody else. So you have to live up to the standards’.”

Nasser Hussain Comments on Virat Kohli’s Captaincy

Former England captain Nasser Hussain has referred India captain, Virat Kohli, a 'tinker man', said that at times he tinkers a little bit too much with his captaincy. While speaking on Star Sports show Cricket Connected, Hussain said how Kohli has emerged as a captain over the years.

"First thing I would say is he’s his own man. It’s very easy coming after MS Dhoni and think, well, I’ve got to be like MS Dhoni, I’ve got to be this calm, calculated finisher, cool, ice man. Virat Kohli could never be the cool ice man. Virat Kohli wears his heart on his sleeve," Hussain said.

He again added, "If you watch Virat Kohli play football in the morning, I worry about some of his own players because he’s so keen to win, he could do a double-footed tackle at waist height to be honest because he just wants to win and that’s why in a run chase in white-ball cricket, if you ask me to name one person I want in a run chase in white-ball cricket, it would be Kohli because he sees that winning target and that’s all he’s interested in.”

Husain also opened up about India's 'selection plan', saying that India made a mistake in the World Cup 2019 by not researching properly for the No. 4 position. India lost to New Zealand in the semifinal of 2019 Cricket World Cup. And since then, former India captain MS Dhoni has been out of the action.

He added that while coming to a World Cup, they need to know about the crucial No. 4 position when they got so many great batsmen in the team. But they lacked in that position which was needed to be sorted out. However, that might have cost them the game as well. Notably, India have tried many players in that position but hardly a few did well.

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MS Dhoni Helped Me Learn the Art of Reading Pitches and Setting Fields, Reveals Kuldeep Yadav

India spinner Kuldeep Yadav recently said that he learnt the art of reading pitches and setting fields from former India captain MS Dhoni who is known for his guidance to the bowlers, especially youngsters behind the stumps.

"When I started my career, I wasn't good at reading the pitch. I learnt about this aspect after I started playing with MS Dhoni. He would often tell me when I needed to spin the ball or where I needed to pitch it," Kuldeep told Deep Dasgupta in the third episode of ESPNcricinfo Cricketbaazi.

He further added, "Dhoni was very good at setting the field as well. That's why I never paid attention to field placement when I bowled with Dhoni keeping the wicket. He would understand where the batsman could try to hit me and set the field accordingly. It helped me bowl with more confidence. This is something I learnt from him and since the time he has not played ODI cricket, this has gone missing as well."

However, Kuldeep shared that he can set his own field now and he also gave the credit to current India captain Virat Kohli for believing in youngsters like him. Kohli believes in all the youngsters to give them full freedom which is also one of the reasons why Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep have had a successful partnership for India and also become the vital cogs in white-ball cricket.

The left-handed spinner further added that Kohli believes that they can win matches for India. When the captain shows faith in a player, his frame of mind improves and it makes everything quite easy as well. He further revealed that for the captain, Virat Kohli, it doesn't matter if a bowler sometimes gave away 65-70 runs in his ten overs but if he picks up three wickets, the captain will be happy.

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The growth of the Indian National Cricket Team

India National Cricket Team that represents India is one of the most popular and strong teams in the cricketing world. Indian National Cricket Team is also known as Men in Blue and shortly as Team India.

Team India is a full member of International Cricket Council in all the formats of the game: Test, One Day International, and Twenty20 International. The team India is governed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

Indian National Cricket Team acquired its test status in the year 1932 and the team has struggled in test cricket for 20 years without a single win. It managed to get its first test win in 1952.

The Team India in its first fifty years in international cricket is one of the weakest cricket team. They played 196 test matches and again victory in only 35 during the first fifty years. The performance of Indian Team improved in the 1970s with players like Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev and more join the team.

In those days, Team India played better only at home and not overseas. At the beginning of the 21st century, Team India worked on its performance abroad. The team won test matches in Australia, England, and South Africa.

Team India has won ICC Cricket World Cup two times in the year 1983 and 2011. In 1983, Team India won the world cup for the first time under the captaincy of Kapil Dev and in 2011, Team India’s World Cup winning captain was MS Dhoni.

Team India became the third team to win the World Cup more than once after West Indies and Australia and it is also the first cricket team to win the World Cup at home. Other than that, Team India has won ICC World Twenty20 2007 and ICC Champions Trophy 2013 under the captaincy of MS Dhoni.

The Current captain of Team India is Virat Kohli and as of October 2018, Indian National Cricket Team is ranked second in ODIs and T20Is and is ranked first in Tests.

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Virat Kohli breaks Rahul Dravid’s 16-year Old Record at MCG

Ongoing India vs Australia series is currently facing its third test that started on December 26 and will end on December 30. The test series is currently level at 1-1 before the outcome of the Boxing Day Test.

Indian Team Captain Virat Kohli added a new record to his list. It seems like India’s favorite Cheeku which is Virat Kohli nickname is meant to break records every time he comes to bat.

During day 2 of the third test against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, India skipper Virat Kohli went past former Indian captain Rahul Dravid’s long-standing record. Virat Kohli in the first innings of the boxing day test was dismissed by Mitchell Starc for 82.

This was the third time when Virat Kohli was dismissed by Mitchell Starc in a Test match of different series. Virat tried to hit a short delivery over the third man fielder’s head for a six but unfortunately, he was caught out in the deep by Aaron Finch.

Though Virat Kohli missed out his 26th Test century and second century of the series, he managed to earn a golden record. With his half-century, Virat Kohli surpassed Rahul Dravid to become highest-scoring Indian Test batsman on overseas soil in a calendar year.

Indian Captain Virat Kohli currently has a total of 1138 runs to his name while Rahul Dravid has 1137 runs to his name in overseas Tests in the year 2002. The list also has Mohinder Amarnath who has 1065 runs to his name in overseas Tests in the year 1983.

The list also features Sunil Gavaskar in the top four who has 918 runs in overseas Tests in his name which he scored in 1971. Virat Kohli innings of 82 have helped also him to become the captain with the third-highest score at MCG.

Virat Kohli broke the 16-year old record of former Indian captain Rahul Dravid. Virat Kohli Profile displays many records to his name. He currently equaled Sachin Tendulkar record with 6 Test centuries in Australia while Sunil Gavaskar has five Test centuries to his name.

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