Simon Taufel Lavishes Praise On 'Leader' Virat Kohli

Former ICC panel umpire Simon Taufel has heaped praise on Virat Kohli, saying that the India skipper leads by example and has matured as a leader. He was all praise for Virat Kohli’s role in transforming India as a top fielding side. The legendary umpire also lauded the current team as the fittest and most agile Indian team in years.

Virat Kohli has indeed turn things around for India as far as fielding and fitness are concerned. Apart from putting emphasis on his batting, he has also prioritized fitness and has motivated his teammates to do the same too. It is now mandatory for the players to clear the fitness tests before getting selected in the teams.

In the last couple of years, several big names like Ambati Rayudu, Mohammed Shami as well as Sanju Samson (for India A) had to lose their spots in the squads after failing to clear the yo-yo test.

“It’s very important from a leader’s perspective to not only be the best they can be but to lead by example. It’s fair to say that the India team you’re seeing now is the fittest and most agile team in many years. That’s because Virat leads by example in that area and he doesn’t ask people to do things that he wouldn’t do himself,” Taufel said in a chat with Inswinging Yorker.

The Australian further spoke about Virat Kohli’a maturity and humility and recalled an incident from the pink-ball Test at the Eden Gardens last year. After India had won the historic game against Bangladesh, Virat Kohli had given the trophy to reserve wicket-keeper KS Bharat during the celebratory photo session.

“The other thing is humility. Virat is really starting to mature as a leader and he’s really starting to show some humility. I was at the pink-ball Test at Kolkata in November last year and at the end of the game when he was given the trophy, you would expect him to stand in the middle with the silverware. However, on this occasion, he chose not to,” Taufel concluded.

Virat Kohli’s captain record:

Virat Kohli has done really well as captain across formats. While he is yet to lead India to triumph in an ICC tournament, he is certainly one of the country’s most successful captains. There were a lot of apprehensions when he took charge of the Test team in 2015 but it did not take long for Virat Kohli to prove himself as captain.

Under him, India remained at the top of ICC Test rankings for more than three years and have also delivered consistently in ODIs and T20Is. Under the star batsman, India won their first-ever Test and ODI series in Australia in 2018-19 season and also won ODI series in South Africa and New Zealand. As far as his record in ICC tournaments is concerned, he led India to the final of the 2017 Champions Trophy and the semifinal of last year’s World Cup.

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