Former Indian pacer Ashish Nehra showered praise for Indian skipper Virat Kohli for his performance on the final day of the first Test match against England and said that Kohli could score 250 if India manages to win the toss in the ongoing four-match Test series.
Chasing a mammoth target of 420, Team India were bowled out for 192. Indian skipper Virat Kohli was the lone fighter and notched up his 24th Test half-century while wickets kept tumbling at the other end in the second innings.
The India skipper missed out a ton when he was cleaned up by Ben Stokes for 72, but he showed great patience and application to keep England on their toes for as long as he was in the middle.
Virat Kohli did not score a single century in 2020 while reflecting on the same former Indian pacer Ashish Nehra said that if India managed to win the toss, Virat Kohli will break his century drought and can even score 250.
"You are talking about one or two centuries, I would say when India wins the toss, he will score 250 also," Ashish Nehra told Star Sports.
Ashish Nehra further praised Virat Kohli for his fighting half-century on Day 5 of the first Test and said that Kohli did not throw his wicket away even as the chase was clearly a lost cause.
"This is the special thing about Virat Kohli. When Ashwin got out, he knew that they will lose the match but he did not play any airy-fairy shots. He takes pride in scoring his own runs, that he should not get out. Anyone would have got out to the ball he was dismissed, it kept extremely low.” he said.
Ashish Nehra further talked about what, according to him, makes Virat Kohli different from other batsmen of his era.
"He kept at it which you need to do on the fourth and fifth days on a subcontinent pitch. The desire makes this player different from others and it is not only here when he couldn't score runs in England, very few people would have seen Virat Kohli lunging forward to play the defensive shots. To do that, you need the fitness," Nehra said.
India and England will lock horns for the second Test at the same venue in front of 50 percent of fans starting 13th February.
(Star Sports inputs)
