Virat Kohli played his 500th international game during the recently held Test series against West Indies.
Kohli has represented India in 111 Tests, 275 ODIs and 115 T20Is so far, amassing more than 25000 international runs with 75 centuries. He led India in 213 matches across formats and won 135 of them. His success rate as Indian captain is one of the best in the history of cricket.
During the recently held Test series against West Indies, Virat became only the fourth Indian cricketer to feature in 500 international matches and slammed a hundred in his landmark game.
Lauding Kohli’s knock of 121 in the Port of Spain Test, South African legend AB de Villiers compared the star Indian batter with Tiger Woods, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.
“One thing stands out I see a similar thing in the greatest sportsmen worldwide. I have seen Tiger Woods, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Djokovic, the list goes on. You mention anyone all of them have one thing in common which is desire hunger and a fighting spirit. The desire to never give up they want to win the medals they want to be the champions you see Ronaldo and Messi that’s the thing that makes Virat Kohli the best in the business,” De Villers said while speaking on his YouTube channel.
“He hates losing so do I and some of the greatest sports people that’s what drives them to work harder than the guy next to them to get one inch on them,” he added.
Having played alongside him at RCB for almost 10 years, AB de Villiers has seen Virat Kohli from close quarters and the former spoke about how kind-hearted the latter is.
“He actually got a beautiful heart I can call myself lucky to witness that first hand not a lot of people get the opportunity not only to see the emotional fighter of a guy on the field. He is a softie off the field. He makes time for people and he always has a helping hand for whoever is in need.”
De Villers also touched upon a recent heartwarming incident when West Indies wicketkeeper Joshua Da Silva’s mother hugged Kohli during the second Test in Trinidad.
He further recalled instances where Kohli would give advice to the younger players during the Indian Premier League.
“Virat Kohli makes time for other people but I experienced something first-hand in Sharjah in the IPL match when IPL was in the UAE and we were playing SRH After the game there were literally 6-7 SRH players around Virat he basically was giving them coaching lessons. Talking about batting, life challenges and the pressure of the game he covered everything I was just standing there and seeing this unfold that is the beauty of the IPL.”
Virat Kohli is currently featuring in the three-match ODI series against West Indies.