Ravi Shastri, Virat Kohli
Ravi Shastri (L) and Virat Kohli (R). (Credits: AP)

India’s head coach, Ravi Shastri, was all praises for Indian captain Virat Kohli post a sensational tour of South Africa. Shastri went one step further and likened Kohli to the iconic Pakistani captain Imran Khan.

Kohli’s leadership skills have impressed one and all over the recent years. His performance with the bat has grown exponentially since the additional responsibility of captaincy.

Even though Kohli’s still at a nascent stage of his captaincy career, the 29-year old has already taken the Test and ODI side of India to the number one ranking.

Shastri and Kohli
Shastri lauded the team and the skipper after the series win (Credits: AP

It’s still early days for Virat but he is already there among the very best. Virat wants to lead by example and reminds me a lot of Imran. He is still very young but he has got a lot of qualities that Imran had when it came to leading a side. Which is great,” quoted Ravi Shastri according to Anandabaazar Patrika.

Shastri previously mentioned that Kohli’s belief and confidence coupled by his optimism spreads like wildfire in the squad. This quality of Virat led to Shastri drawing synonyms with Imran Khan.

Just the ability to always want to dominate, want to compete, irrespective of whatever conditions you get, believe that you can do it and when you have that kind of quality it spreads among the other players as well. And that was very similar to the way Imran led,” added Shastri.

Ravi Shastri likened Virat Kohli to World Cup winning captain Imran Khan

Apart from winning the ODI series by 5-1, Kohli led the charge with the bat for his team, smashing tons at will. Overall, he amassed as many as 871 runs across all formats of the South African tour, a rare feat amongst all batsmen.

I think he was fantastic on the last trip. It was a tough trip. When you are the leading batsman in the side plus the captain, plus the conditions you get, plus the side that you are playing which is formidable, you need to be on top of your game,” continued the 55-year old.

Ravi Shastri, Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg, Team India, Victory, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami
Virat Kohli has shared a great bound with Ravi Shastri. Photo Credit: Getty Images.

Mentally and physically. And he did just that. For someone to score 870-plus score on a single tour in two months, is an unbelievable achievement. Really unbelievable achievement” ended Ravi Shastri.

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