Virat Kohli's 'controlled aggression' keeps him in the game, says Venkatesh Prasad
Many great cricketers have compared the captaincy styles of Sourav Ganguly and Virat Kohli as both used aggression to their advantage. Now, former Indian pacer Venkatesh Prasad too has also spoken about Virat Kohli's captaincy and said he believed that it was his aggression that has helped him become India's most successful captain in Tests.
"Virat comes across as a very, very passionate guy and comes with controlled aggression. This doesn't mean that he goes overboard. People might feel that he goes overboard but that's his aggression, that's what keeps him going," Prasad was quoted as saying by TOI.
"Virat Kohli and Sourav Ganguly are similar captains"
In a career that lasted from 1994 to 2001, Prasad played under many captains like Mohammad Azharuddin, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly. He formed a lethal partnership with Javagal Srinath and helped India to famous wins.
Drawing a parallel from his experience of playing under Ganguly's captaincy, Prasad revealed that the current BCCI president and Virat Kohli had similar captaincy styles as they both wore their hearts on their sleeves.
“I think Sourav and Virat are pretty much on similar lines, because Sourav also took up captaincy when there were a lot of negative things going around the team. That's one. Second, Sourav had to really transform the team. I think it required huge leadership skills basically. And that's what Sourav showed. He had an amazing leadership quality and he set the standard both as captain and a player. He set very high standards in both categories," Prasad asserted.
Prasad also revealed that Ganguly always backed his players and it was his backing of youngsters like Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, etc. that made them the superstars they became . At thew same time he also had experienced players like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, etc. This great mix of experience and youth gave Ganguly's team the edge over their opponents.
Similarly even Virat Kohli has a great mix of youth and experience. With players like Cheteshwar Pujara, Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane taking care of the batting department, Virat Kohli has built a potent pace bowling attack by backing pacers like Jasprit Bumrah in the longest format of the game and now is reaping rewards by having probably the best all-round bowling attack in Test cricket.
Thus, Prasad believes that Virat Kohli can take Indian cricket ahead the same way in which Sourav Ganguly has.