New Delhi: Former England captain Nasser Hussain praised Virat Kohli’s 48th ODI century in leading India to a seven-wicket win in their 2023 Men’s ODI World Cup league match against Bangladesh, saying the talismanic right-handed batter is brilliant in run-chases as he is always playing the situations while hunting down a total.
Chasing 257 at MCA Stadium in Pune, Kohli slammed 103 not out off 97 balls, hitting six fours and four sixes at a strike-rate of 106.18, after Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill shared an 88-run opening stand to give India their fourth consecutive win of the competition.
“Kohli always plays the situation and that’s why he is brilliant in run chases. He sees the situation out there in front of him, he won’t be much off the strike rate anyway because he never takes up deliveries or chews up deliveries.”
“On a pitch like this if you wanted to go into another gear, if he was chasing 350, Kohli would’ve gone into another gear, but he was just making sure India got over the line as he often does,” Hussain told Star Sports.
He also said that with Kohli, Rohit and Shubman Gill in fine form, the pressure will be more on bowlers in coming matches. “I have thought for a long time, he’s one of the best white-ball batters there has ever been. His record is up there with the best, he’s done it in World Cups.”
“His record against Bangladesh is magnificent, his pull shot, at one stage we showed a graphic — he was averaging 400 in the pull shot in the last couple of years. He got out to it in the end but not before he had done a lot of damage.”
“The most important thing I like is intent, there is real intent, for a while they played a bit of timid Cricket in the T20 World Cup in Australia and they lost to England in Adelaide in that semi-final. This looks like a different top three, the way Rohit, Shubman and Virat are playing are going to put a lot of top-order bowlers under pressure,” he elaborated.
Hussain felt Rohit was good in rotating his bowlers against Bangladesh after losing Hardik Pandya to a left ankle injury. “Just the way when you lose a bowler, the way you have to think about bowlers are key moments in the games. Kuldeep was bowling really well, and he realised the way Siraj has come back with those cross-seam deliveries and then he went to Siraj, he got the wicket, and then he went back to Kuldeep, Jadeja and Bumrah.”
“He just rotated his bowlers, and as Dinesh Karthik said on commentary, it wasn’t just the rotation, he was always rotating, looking to get a wicket. So, a bit like his batting where he has the attacking option, it’s the same with his captaincy.”
India’s next match of the tournament will be against New Zealand in what will be a clash of the only two unbeaten sides occupying the top two spots in the World Cup points table at the picturesque HPCA Stadium in Dharamshala on Sunday.
–IANS