Steve Smith is a lot more controlled than Virat Kohli, says Steve Waugh

After the culmination of 3rd T20I against the Proteas at Newlands, India skipper Virat Kohli was presented the ICC Test Championship Mace and a prize of US $1 million by ICC Cricket Hall of Famers Sunil Gavaskar and Graeme Pollock. India ensured the apex spot after their victory in the third and final Test at Johannesburg against the Proteas last month. The win implied that no team can move ahead of India in the Test rankings at the 3 April cut-off date.

This is the second year in running that the Indian team has retained the mace. While the 2017-18 season featured a lot of home games, the new season will pose a tough challenge with stiff aways tour lined up. Following a 2-1 loss to South Africa in the longer format, India will travel to England for a 5-match Test series in July and then later to Australia in November for 4-match Test series where they will try to defend the numero uno spot.

And former Australia captain Steve Waugh believes that the Kohli-led side’s real challenge is about to start. The 52-year-old also highlighted that apart from the riveting encounter between India and Australia, it would also be a battle between the two best batsmen of the contemporary era. The sub-plot of the series would be ICC 2017 Player of the year Virat Kohli and ICC 2017 Test Player of the year Steve Smith battling it out for personal supremacy.

While both the captains are aggressive in their approach yet there is a contrasting difference. Waugh added that Smith is better controlled than Kohli but sometimes that holds him back as well.

Waugh draws comparison between both the captains

According to Time Now,”They both are very aggressive captains. Smith is a lot more controlled in his emotions. Having said that, he gets wound up as well at times. I have seen Smith and Kohli clashing at times on the field. So in a lot of ways, there are pretty similar. They are passionate, they lead from the front, they want to score most runs, they want to be the man of the match and they want to be in the center of attention, which is great.

He further added, “ I think Virat will be very keen to have better series this time around because Smith dominated him the last time in India although India won the series.”