Virat Kohli would've made my West Indies side: Clive Lloyd

Virat Kohli’s technique and composure were questioned after a poor tour to England in 2014. But he rose to the occasion with a sparkling 149 in the series opener itself. Amassing 200 runs in the Test match, he scored almost 50% of the cumulative scores India made and got his team on the brink of a first-ever Test win at Edgbaston only to fall early on the 4th morning to kickstart an India collapse.

Kohli has been a rock for the Indian team ever since the captaincy baton was handed to him. He already has 6 double hundreds to his credit as captain, and was India’s leading run scorer, by a distance, in India’s last two high profile Test assignments- South Africa away, and England at home. His overseas record also makes for impressive reading as he boasts of a century in almost all Test playing nations outside Asia barring Zimbabwe.

His average in whites has perennially been on the rise since he became captain. The stats clearly attest to the fact that captaincy brings out the best in him. From a surprisingly underwhelming average of 39 for a player of his calibre when he played his first Test as captain in November 2014, Kohli now averages almost 54 which is the reason the legendary Clive Lloyd is all praise of him and termed him as an ‘exceptional batsman’.

I don’t like comparing generations

In an interview to Times of India, the two-time World Cup winning captain opened up on his thoughts on Virat Kohli. Vivian Richards had earlier said that the Indian captain’s prolific run-scoring and batting style reminded him of himself. Responding to his fellow teammates’ quotes, Lloyd was also full of praise for the stalwart but refused to give in to this “comparison”.

“That’s Viv’s thoughts and I am not in favour of comparing generations. But there’s no doubt about the fact that Kohli is an exceptional batsman. He is doing a few great things for his country and if you ask me whether he would have made my side, I would say yes. In fact, Kohli would make a number of great sides across generations.” he said.

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