'You shouldn't mess with Virat Kohli' - Rashid Latif compares the Indian skipper with Sir Viv Richards

Virat Kohli has been an aggressive batsman since the time he has been playing international cricket. His aggressive nature on the field, backed by his abilities of batting has made him a batsman anyone fears to bowl at. Former Pakistan wicket-keeper Rashid Latif recently talked about the Indian batsman and what makes him such a good batsman.

Rashid Latif picked up an example of how Kohli batted during the Australian tour in 2014-15. In the first test, Kohli had got a bouncer first up from Johnson when he arrived on the crease. Kohli didn’t like that and had a few words exchanged with Johnson.

Kohli, in fact, was leading the Test side for the first time in that match. He also scored two centuries in the match. The banter between Kohli and Johnson saw a new chapter in the Melbourne Test which happened in a few weeks time. Once again the two were at each other, but Kohli went on to score another century in that match as well.

Rashid Latif recalls Kohli-Williams encounter

Recalling that series, Latif said as quoted by The New Indian Express, “In 2014 series, when Dhoni retired after two Tests. Then there was one Test, in which Virat Kolhi scored two tons in each innings. In that match, Mitchell Johnson stepped up to Kohli, and dono ke beech thik thak gaaliyan chal rahi thi. Watch that clip, and you will see Kohli’s reaction was not defensive.”

Rashid further said Kohli is one of the players with whom a bowler should mess up with. He compared the Indian captain with former greats, like Viv Richards, Javed Miandad and Sunil Gavaskar. “There are some players you don’t mess with. We had Javed bhai, Viv Richards, Sunil Gavaskar. Today, Virat Kohli is one such player,” he added.

Latif picked up another famous on-field encounter Kohli had. Last year, during the T20I series between India and West Indies, Kohli had a few words with Kesrick Williams, who is famous for his peculiar notebook celebration. After hitting him for a few boundaries, Kohli decided to return the favour to Williams.

“Recently, in a T20I match against West Indies, a left-arm pacer (here, Latif is actually referring to right-arm quick Kesrick Williams) said some words to him. Even though Kohli does not score too many runs in T20Is, but he went on to play a great inning in that match. There are certain players you don’t mess with during a match,” Latif said recalling that encounter.