England Vs India 2018: Asif Iqbal Lauds Virat Kohli's Team India

Former Pakistan cricketer Asif Iqbal stated that the current Team India led by Virat Kohli is the best team ever that has travelled to England.

A 2-1 margin by the hosts currently leads the five-match Test series between India and England. However, India still has a chance of winning the Test series.

If they do achieve the feat, India will become the second team after Don Bradman led Australia back in 1936 to come from 0-2 behind and win a Test series.

“Even after watching the Indian team lose at Edgbaston, I strongly believed that this was the best Indian team ever to tour England. In my opinion, it was because of the way they played. They have got seamers to bowl in these conditions and spinners who can turn things around and the batsmen to score the runs.  I think their fielding has been top class during the test series so far. They have got every department covered,” Asif Iqbal said during an exclusive interview with Xtratime.

Asif Iqbal has been very impressed with Virat Kohli

Asif was very impressed with the way Indian skipper Kohli has batted in the ongoing series so far. Kohli is the leading run scorer in the series among both teams by a country mile. He has already smashed a couple of centuries and a couple of half-centuries in the series so far.

“I personally enjoy watching Virat bat in whatever format. He always plays proper cricketing shots in whatever format he is playing. He doesn’t play any innovative shots. Kohli scores faster but does it without playing any rash shots. The other Indian cricketer who I enjoy watching bat is Rohit Sharma,” Asif added.

Recently Kohli became the N0. 1 ranked Test batsman and displaced suspended Australian skipper Steven Smith from the top position.

“I think Virat is rightly the No. 1 batsman in the world not just because he is scoring runs against England but the way he scores his runs. Look at the two centuries he scored especially the one at Edgbaston in trying conditions. If you look at the three test matches so far he is way ahead regarding the leading run scorer from both sides,” Iqbal maintained.

Asif is a big fan of how Kohli does about his job as a skipper of the team. He further went onto compare Kohli with Imran Khan. Imran remains the one and only skipper to lead Pakistan to a World Cup title in 1992.

Asif Iqbal feels Virat Kohli is a sort of a player who draws people to the ground:

“I think you need players like Virat to draw people to the cricket grounds.  The most important thing is he is producing results. Imran Khan led from the front because he used to perform and demand commitment. I can see the similarity between Virat and Imran because Virat also performs and because of that reason he can demand the respect from his teammates. Virat has all the qualities to make a successful captain,” Iqbal remarked.

Meanwhile, the former Pakistani and Kent cricketer feels that India is catching up quite fast in the fast bowling department. He has been very impressed with the current crop of Indian fast bowlers.

“I don’t know what kind of the wickets the domestic matches are played on in India these days, but the current bunch of bowlers are all brilliant. It looks like India is producing wickets that encourage seamers. Indian bowlers in recent times have shown that if they have the conditions in their favour they can create havoc in opposition batting ranks as was the case in South Africa where they took 60 wickets,” he stated.

Meanwhile, he found it quite strange that Sachin Tendulkar was not included in the List of 11 best batsmen of all time.

“It is laughable. I don’t know who compiles such lists, as they should be a bunch of jokers. It is baffling to see the world’s leading run scorer (Sachin Tendulkar)not present in that list. I don’t know what the criteria are or how they picked these players because some of the names featuring in that list does not deserve,” concluded Iqbal.