Virat Kohli Bats Exactly Like Viv Richards: Sunil Gavaskar

Virat Kohli has impinged himself as one of the greatest-ever batsman that this beautiful game has ever seen. And, like with every great batsman of his era, Kohli has often been compared to the legends of the past, especially to Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar.

Kohli has already overhauled the 10000-run barrier in One-day International cricket and with 43 centuries to his name, he is primed to break Sachin’s record of 49 ODI hundreds.

Apart from Sachin, the Indian superstar has often been compared with the Calypso king Sir Vivian Richards for his charisma and the way he establishes his authority on a cricket field.

Taking this comparison to a completely different level, former Indian legendary opener Sunil Gavaskar has reckoned that one of the many similarities between Richards and Virat is that it is very difficult to keep them quiet on a cricket field, purely because they have the ability to hurt the bowlers on both sides of the wicket.

“It was very difficult to keep Viv Richards quiet when he was at the crease. Similarly, if you look at Virat Kohli’s batting today, in the same ball and same line, he will use his top hand and score a boundary towards the extra cover region and will use the bottom hand and score a boundary towards the mid-on and mid-wicket region,” Sunil Gavaskar said on Star Sports show ‘Winning the Cup- 1983’.

“That’s why Virat Kohli is considered as the No. 1 player because he bats exactly like Viv Richards. Earlier, Gundappa Vishwanath, VVS Laxman used to bat like this.” he added.

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Not the first time Virat Kohli has been compared to Sir Vivian Richards

One of the many things that makes Kohli such a great batsman is the fact that he has succeeded in all formats of the game, and he has done that without changing his style of play and shot-making too much.

Former Australian captain Ian Chappell had also alluded to this point when he compared Virat with Viv Richards last month. Chappell had said that the major reason why he thinks that Virat is alike Richards is that he scores runs at a fair clip by employing only traditional shots.

‘He said he didn’t want those to creep in his batting in the longer form of the game. The best short-form player in the time I played was Viv Richards, and he just played normal cricket shots but he placed the ball so well he was able to score at a very fast rate. And Kohli’s the same. He plays traditional cricket shots, and he plays them really well,” Chappell had said on the RK Show.

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