Mohali, Sep 19 (IANS) Australia T20I skipper Aaron Finch on Monday said one would have to be a very, very brave man to write off talismanic batter Virat Kohli at any stage in the game.
Finch went to on call what Kohli, the former India captain, has achieved in his international cricket career as “just ridiculous”.
Earlier this month, Kohli overcame a prolonged lean patch with the bat in the Asia Cup 2022 by scoring his 71st international century against Afghanistan in the last Super Four match of India. The unbeaten 122, also his career-best effort in T20Is, was his first international century since November 2019.
Kohli was the second-highest run-getter in Asia Cup 2022, making 276 runs in six matches at a strike rate of 147.59, including two fifties.
“You’d be a very, very brave man to write off Virat at any stage. He has shown for 15 years now, that he is one of the greatest players of all time. Particularly in T20 cricket, he is someone who has developed his game and grown his game over for such a long period.”
“You are always trying to prepare to the best of your ability when you are coming up against Virat. He is superb, 71 international hundreds, that is just ridiculous, isn’t it?” said Finch in a virtual press conference on the eve of first T20I.
Finch will be seen in action for the first time since retiring from ODIs owing to his continuous struggles with the bat. He expects himself to do well in T20Is. “Over a long period of time, you get pretty comfortable with criticism but in T20 cricket, I feel my form has been really good for quite a while now. I think if you separate the ODI form and the T20 form, then they’re totally different, they’re two different formats of the game.”
Finch further felt that all-rounder Cameron Green, who is not in Men’s T20 World Cup squad, but is on the short tour in place of David Warner, is a potential three-format player in the making. Green made his Australia T20I debut in Pakistan earlier this year, but he has only played 14 T20s till now.
“I think his ability to bat at five, six, seven in the one-day team has been really impressive. The fact that such a young guy was able to guide us home in a really tricky run chase, in a great partnership with Alex Carey in the recent series against New Zealand, shows that he’s got all the tricks and the game sense for such a young guy to be super successful in all three formats for Australia. He’s just such a great kid, someone who continues to impress with everything that he does.”
–IANS
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