England vs India 2018: The Best of Virat Kohli is Yet to Come, Feels Greg Chappell

Former Australian batsman and a controversial coach of Team India, Greg Chappell stated the best of Virat Kohli is yet to come in the United Kingdom (UK) against England.

Chappell has observed the rise of Kohli from the Under-19 days. Hence he feels that Kohli will succeed even more in the coming days. Chappell during an interview with CricketNext reiterated Kohli’s will to succeed places him in a special category of players.

Despite India conceding the series 1-3 with a Test match still left, Kohli has been in stupendous form. He has scored 544 runs in eight innings at an average of 68 so far. Jos Buttler is a distant second in the list with 260 runs in the series.

“I don’t know that there are many with more will to succeed than Virat,” Chappell said.

“He has a real desire. Something’s driving him that is beyond what most people are capable of. I think we still haven’t seen the best of him. I think maybe not better to come, but more of the good to come. What he has done in England on this tour has been quite exceptional,” he added.

“He has probably exceeded what anyone would have expected. I think after (Sachin) Tendulkar, most people felt that’s the pinnacle, but the sport has a funny way of always throwing somebody up who can exceed what the champions of the past have done. Kohli as well as having great physical talent has the mental capacity and the emotional capacity to deal with what it takes to be successful in that really harsh environment,” Chappell maintained.

Kohli has led India from the front. However, he has been let down by his teammates in the series so far. The fast bowlers have produced some brilliant performances in the series so far.

Chappell feels efforts to nurture the young fast bowlers is the reason why India is producing world class fast bowlers at the moment.

Greg Chappell feels the weight of the modern helmet restricts movement of a batsman:

He thinks that it is a weight of the contemporary helmets which limit the movement for a batsman, especially against the seaming deliveries.

“The bats, they have definitely changed. The thickness of the bats isn’t much heavier than the ones we used, but the weight and the mass of the bat is spread very differently. So, you get better results with mishits than we used to do,” he remarked.

Virat Kohli has played a different brand of cricket for India against England this time around in the UK, as Greg Chappell believes there is plenty to come.

“There are not the demands to get as close to the ball when the wickets are good. And because of one-day cricket, the preparation of pitches for one-day cricket has had an impact on the Test pitches for a long period. Because the bats demanded that you hit the ball in the middle. Also, players learnt to get closer to the ball, well forward and well back. They are things that have changed,” he concluded.