Indian cricket team skipper Virat Kohli has been winning accolades from across the globe after hitting his 34th One-Day International century, against South Africa on Wednesday. Former West Indies great Alvin Kallicharran was the latest to join the bandwagon, saying the 29-year-old has the best of both Viv Richards and Kapil Dev.
“The attitude is strong in both [Kohli and Richards],” Kallicharran told the Times of India in an interview. “I am one person who wouldn’t like to compare players. But Kohli’s attitude is as ruthless as Viv’s was. Kohli seems to have some of those qualities. He is a successful captain. As a batsman, he is a phenomenon. Always hungry. His consistency is tremendous.”
The 68-year-old also insisted that he hasn’t seen an Indian captain who was willing to take unpopular decisions and that was Kohli’s biggest strength.
“I don’t think India would ever have a captain like that, except perhaps Kapil Dev,” said Kallicharran, who was part of West Indies’ 1975 and 79 World Cup-winning squads. “Kapil used to take decisions on his own and he was an exciting cricketer. He used to make some decisions nobody thought could happen in cricket. Kohli now has brought a new brand of captaincy. Virat Kohli is not an orthodox captain,” he added.
The former West Indies skipper also brushed aside concerns over the lack of strong voices in the Indian team to give another perspective to captain Kohli. “I think a team’s passion to play and win is the key,” he said. “That sort of takes care of things. This team has that. In my era too there was a bunch of chaps hungry to win. Everybody eventually knows what his job is in the team and what each one is expected to do,” he added.
Corrections and clarifications: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Virat Kohli has hit 29 ODI centuries. He has, in fact, hit 34 ODI centuries and the article has been modified to reflect the same.