Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: After India talismanic batter Virat Kohli silenced his critics of his form with a match-winning Champions Trophy century against Pakistan, former West Indies World Cup-winning skipper Vivian Richards revealed the one quality of Kohli’s game he would have loved to adopt if he were playing in today’s era.
Kohli is set for his 300th ODI on February 2 in the latest landmark for the Indian batting great after he surpassed former batting great Sachin Tendulkar’s record as the first player with 51 centuries in the 50-over format.
He scored his 51st ODI century against Pakistan in the second group stage match of the Champions Trophy last week and helped India seal a spot in the semi-finals of the tournament. The 36-year-old right-hander, who made his debut for India back in 2008 against Sri Lanka, also became only the third batter in ODI history to score over 14,000 runs after greats of the game Tendulkar and Kumar Sangakkara.
“His energy, I think, is very important… and his passion. And these are things that I cherish. When you have a team and you can defend your team, I think we have all that particular quality,” International Masters League Governing Council Member and West Indies legend Sir Vivian Richards said in a virtual press conference.
“But just the energy, seeing him on the boundary… he’s far away, and there’s an appeal for leg before, and he’s shouting; he’s appealing as well… but he goes to show you his involvement in the game all the time. There’s a passion for that. And there’s not a moment that goes on that field that Virat Kohli miss. He’s just magnificent in that way,” he added.
Kohli isn’t new to maintaining records in the ODI format. At the 2023 ODI World Cup in India, he had secured the all-time record for most runs in a single edition of the tournament, finishing with a whopping 765 runs from 11 matches, comprising three hundreds and six half-centuries.
