England vs India: Kapil Dev ranks Virat Kohli among top 10 players of all time

Ahead of the high-pressure Test series against England, India’s first World Cup-winning captain Kapil Dev ranked Indian skipper Virat Kohli as one of top 10 players of all time. The 59-year-old former all-rounder, who will represent India in international golf in Japan later this year, said Kohli’s name will be written in the history of cricket like former greats like Sachin Tendulkar and Sunil Gavaskar.

In an exclusive interview with ThePrint, Dev said: “Virat Kohli is among the top 10 players of all time. His name will be written in the history of 200 years of cricket, like Sachin Tendulkar and Sunil Gavaskar.”

Kohli had a disastrous outing in England last time India played a Test series there, managing just 134 runs in 10 innings. Given the stature in batsmanship the 29-year-old has gained over the years, the Indian fans are eager to see him conquer what is being seen as a ‘final frontier’ for him as a batsman.

Kohli breaking records as he goes along

Kohli has amassed 56 international centuries and has scored in almost countries he has batted. He also has a fair chance of overtaking the mountain of runs and centuries that his predecessor Tendulkar has built during his career spanning almost two-and-half decades.

Kohli has 35 ODI hundreds at the moment, 14 short of Tendulkar’s record 49. He averages 58.20 in the 50-over format and is 221 runs short of 10,000 runs. He also averaged above 50 in the T20I format a little while ago and currently has an average of 48.88 in 62 matches. In Tests, Kohli averages 53.40 in 66 matches and has 21 centuries – six of which are double. His total runs in Tests are 5,554.

Dev’s praise for Kohli comes at a time when the English side has been playing mind games to unsettle him. While James Anderson has been regularly targeting him, Essex, against which India played a warm-up game ahead of the first Test, tweeted saying Kohli “can bat” after he completed his half-century. The Indian captain’s fans gave it back to the county for making the remark.

Though India’s No.1 rank in Tests has also not convinced many since they did not have as many wins as one would have liked the No.1 side to win against big teams on foreign soils, Dev said a cricket team is not judged by its performance over a few weeks but over a time period of 15 years. He said by that yardstick, India has done well over a decent period of time, winning many top laurels, including the World Cup.

“Just because they lost to Pakistan in the Champions Trophy (final) doesn’t mean they are bad,” he said.

“We were right at the bottom in our time. Now we are number one. One Champions Trophy doesn’t mean Pakistan is on top; Pakistan still has to fight very hard to get there,” the former captain who led India to their first world title in 1983 beating the mighty West Indies, said.

He also backed Ravichandran Ashwin as key to India’s success in the upcoming series.

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