Virat Kohli Lauds Hanuma Vihari For Accepting To Open The Batting During India's Tour Of Australia

Indian captain Virat Kohli is someone, who wears his heart on his sleeves, and is not afraid to take bold decisions. Virat Kohli instead believes that battles on the field are won by having the correct mindset and by seizing every opportunity possible. In a conversation with Mayank Agarwal, the Indian captain has shed light on the brave decisions taken by him in the tour of Australia in 2018-19.

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During India’s visit to Australia for four Tests, their opening pair of Murali Vijay and KL Rahul struggled to play out the Australian seamers. As a result, after two Tests, Virat Kohli decided to blood in a new opening pair in Mayank Agarwal and Hanuma Vihari. While the former made his international debut, the latter was a middle-order batsman but accepted to open the innings.

Virat Kohli remarked that for him, the most significant marker is how a player approaches the game. Hanuma Vihari, who accepted an unfamiliar role, impressed the 31-year old and mattered to him the most. According to him, a player who enters challenging situations either comes out victorious or learns from their mistakes.

“For me, the biggest marker is how a person approaches the game, so for example when you opened and we made Vihari open with you. The first opportunity we presented Vihari to open the batting, he said yes to it and that matters to me the most. I opened in my first series for India, I said yes to this opportunity and things worked out fine for me. So, a guy who wants to get into tough situations will come out either holding his head high or learning from his mistakes,” Kohli told Mayank in an interaction on BCCI.TV.

“I knew you would be fearless without having any baggage” : Virat Kohli

The Delhi batsman went on to hail Mayank Agarwal too for batting fearlessly against the Australian pacers. He recalled the Karnataka batsman performing well for Bangalore in the IPL and domestic circuit, taking on bowlers confidently and with attacking intent. Hence, the Indian captain singled out his character more than runs. So far, Mayank Agarwal has 974 runs in 11 Tests and scored a defiant half-century in debut in Melbourne.

“I had seen you play for RCB, even then you played international bowlers with conviction and you would take them on. You were performing in first-class matches in a dominating way. That is something always stood out with you, I would say your character stood out for me than the number of runs. I knew you would be fearless without having any baggage,” he added.

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