Virat Kohli has succeeded a lot in his short stint of captaincy.
Former England cricketer Mike Brearley praised the Indian skipper Virat Kohli and has kept him among the top 3 in his list. Brearley, who himself led England in 31 international sides was asked to rate his three favourite captains at his book release event here, Brearley singled out Ray Illingworth, Ian Chappell and Kohli.
“I haven’t been close enough to (Virat) Kohli but I admire him enormously, he has given the team pride and aggression. He is always attentive, keen eyed, he is a wonderful batsman and he is shrewd,” said Brearley.
He also talked about Ramchandra Guha's views on Kohli's influence in Indian cricket. “Yes, the captain is the most powerful member of the team. There’s balance and he must not be the only one.
“A leader of a country should be kept in check. He needs to have people he listens to and people who tells him where he’s getting things wrong. Kennedy used to have a group of people who’s job was to criticise his policies, that seems to be very healthy.”
India will be touring to England later this year. Brearley also spoke about it and said the tour is going to be tough. “India have got a very good team. I was impressed with how they stuck at it in the last innings in Johannesburg in the field and their batting on difficult pitches was against good quality bowling.”
Kohli has never played with same team in his Test captaincy career till now. Brearley thinks it's because of T20s. “I find it extraordinary, and probably because it is unsettling to the team when you have too many changes. May be what is come in with T20 cricket is greater openness to variability.”
Brearley felt Kohli has come through from the disappointing tour of England in 2014. “He’s now scoring runs everywhere. He was up against top quality bowlers in conditions that suited them.”