‘Virat must be fast becoming India’s best ever skipper’: Michael Vaughan

Indore: Having earlier criticised the Indian wickets, former England skipper Michael Vaughan has now praised skipper Virat Kohli after India registered an innings and 130-run win over Bangladesh in the first Test of the two-match series at the Holkar Stadium on Saturday.

Taking to Twitter, Vaughan wrote: “Virat must be fast becoming India’s best ever skipper ...”

Kohli might have failed to rise to the challenge with the bat in hand in the first Test against Bangladesh, but he added a new feather to his cap as he now has the most number of wins by an innings - 10. He is followed by Mahendra Singh Dhoni with 9 wins, Mohammad Azharuddin with 8 and Sourav Ganguly with seven.

Kohli was all praise for his pacers. “I don’t really know what to say,” said Kohli at the post-match presentation. “Clinical performances all around. The team is playing really well. I can’t say something which people are not seeing on TV.”

The pace trio of Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, and Umesh Yadav led from the front as the bowlers took 20 wickets in a match that lasted just over two and a half days. This was despite India missing Jasprit Bumrah, who has emerged as the team’s strike bowler since his Test debut in early 2018.

“These guys are on top of their game when they bowl, it looks like any pitch is a good pitch, Jasprit isn’t here but this is a dream combination for any captain. Having strong bowlers is the most important thing in any team. The numbers and records are there for everyone to see, that’ll remain in the books, we haven’t focused on it,” said Kohli.

The 31-year-old said that he was telling Mayank Agarwal to play on throughout the opener’s extraordinary innings to ensure that his personal score gets as big as possible. Agarwal smashed his third century and the second double ton of his nascent Test career and had accumulated 243 runs before being dismissed on Day 2.

“The mindset is simple when you see a young guy coming in to bat, in Tests I know how much time it took me to get those big hundreds, so I know the importance of getting big runs. It’s important as a senior batter to let them know to keep going. I want them not to make the mistakes I made as a youngster to make them world-class cricketers,” he said. IANS

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