John Wright feels Virat Kohli has huge shoes to fill
The former Indian Coach, John Wright says that he has watched the Indian Cricket Team grow over the years. He believes that the series win against South Africa is just a beginning for the young captain, Virat Kohli. Wright believes that there are much bigger things lined up for the Indian Team.
In a recent interview, Wright was asked about Virat Kohli’s captaincy, his favourites for the upcoming World Cup and many more.
On being asked about what he feels about Kohli’s captaincy, the former coach said, “I’ve always liked Virat’s approach to the game — he’s passionate, aggressive. I think you pick your best eleven and then pick your captain — he’s always going to be in your best eleven. He’s got huge shoes to fill but he’s obviously up for the job.”
Wright believes that Kohli’s aggression and passion towards the game are the key factors of his wonderful captaincy. He believes that Kohli has “huge shoes” to fill but he is ready to take up the challenge and lead his team to prosperity.
He was then asked if Kohli could lead in the ODIs too, but as we all know that MSD’s record is phenomenal in One Day Internationals, and that’s what Wright felt too.
Wright commented, “I’m too far away from the action to make an informed comment on that. MS’s performances are legendary. In one-day cricket or T20 cricket... I know if I put my Mumbai Indians hat on that when Dhoni walks to the wicket, it’s a wicket you want to get.”
Wright was then asked about the IND-SA series, and surprisingly, like a few, he was in favour of those spinning tracks and believed that different countries should have different tracks to examine the techniques. According to him, the real challenge will be when India goes to South Africa.
“From what I understand, one of the wickets turned quite a lot but the rest weren’t too bad. At the end of the day, if you went to South Africa, you wouldn’t get wickets that turned. And if you come to India you’ve got to expect that. It’s not impossible for overseas teams to win here but it’s pretty difficult. I don’t think it’s a bad thing where countries have different conditions to examine technique.
“It’s good for a young team to get a series win — any series win against South Africa is difficult because they fight. The challenge will be when India goes back to South Africa,” Wright said.
After talking about India and Kohli, he was asked about the newly initiated day/night Test cricket, which made its debut on 27th November in Adelaide.
Wright added, “I think it made a very encouraging start and obviously captured the imagination of the fans. That’s an important part of cricket these days. From what I hear, the start was encouraging. From the other feedback, which I read like everyone else, there’s probably one or two things that need to be ironed out.”
Finally, John was asked about his favourites for the World T20, and for him, without a doubt, the favourites were the Indians, he concluded, “India, obviously. Because they’re going to be playing in home conditions.”
The former coach had loads to say about the Indian side. It will be amazing to watch if the Indian side can live up to their former coach’s expectations and win the World T20.