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Indian skipper Virat Kohli has proved his worth as a leader of Team India with last few results. During the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 2018-19, India played exceptional cricket and defeated Australia by 2-1. Kohli then became the first Asian captain to beat Aussies on their turf.
Kohli’s fearless approach and attacking mindset has impressed former Australia coach John Buchanan.
The Queenslander has drawn a parallel between Kohli and ex-India captain Sourav Ganguly. Buchanan opined that the 31-year-old has quite a few similarities like Ganguly.
“Once Sourav took over, he instilled a different way of not only playing but also a different way of just conducting themselves against strong oppositions like Australia. It was a developing rivalry for sure, but Sourav was able to take it to another level. Like Ganguly, Kohli has done the same thing for the India team,” Buchanan told Sportstar.
India will miss Kohli on both on and off the field: Buchanan
Buchanan lauded Kohli for his inspiring leadership that led India to beat Australia Down Under two years ago.
“He [Virat Kohli] has done an incredibly good job – irrespective of whether he is scoring runs or not. If we go back to 2019, Pujara was the star of the series, and Kohli made some contributions, so did [Ajinkya] Rahane. But Kohli’s real contribution is his leadership and captaincy and the way he instils greatness – not only to win games but also in finding a way to beat teams,” added Buchanan.
The former World Cup-winning coach of Australia’s national cricket team dropped his thoughts on the absence of Kohli in the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
The Delhi-born will return home after the Adelaide Test for the birth of his first child. Buchanan observed that Team India would surely miss the non-appearance of Kohli in the remaining three Test matches.
“Whoever replaces him – which is probably going to be Rahane – might be a good leader, but Kohli has something special about him. It’s not only on the field, but they will also be missing him off the field because it’s going to be a long tour,” the 67-year-old concluded.