Former Indian cricketer Mohammad Kaif has hailed the veteran Indian batter Virat Kohli for showing his new side by displaying an attacking show with nine sixes in his unbeaten 139-run knock in the first ODI against the West Indies on Sunday, September 27.
Speaking on his YouTube channel after India’s eight-wicket win in Trivandrum, Kaif reckoned that until Kohli’s bat does the talking, no one has the guts to touch him. He also delved into the statistical details of Kohli’s last 11 innings in this calendar year.
“I still remember when Kohli got out for consecutive ducks in Australia, people told him to retire and that he cannot do it now. After that, Kohli has scored 900 runs in 11 innings with four hundreds. He has played only 11 innings in a year, which is one match per month. Despite not playing regularly, the way he has batted in this game, he is a boundary hitter, but he scored nine sixes here. He has not done this before. This is something new. This is his new side. He is showing that he is 37, has had a long career with ups and downs, but his weapon is his bat. Until his bat is doing the talking, no one has the guts to touch him. Nobody can touch him. He has made this clear,” he said in a video on his YouTube channel.
Additionally, Kaif praised Kohli for his impressive consistency in the white-ball formats and advised youngsters to take key learnings from Kohli’s hunger, determination, and hard work to keep themselves fit.
“He plays in the IPL, there he made RCB champions back-to-back. Here in ODIs he is scoring in all games. This is brilliant. Youngsters need to learn his fitness, his hunger, his determination, his hard work and to keep yourself at that level. His end goal is to win games and come not out. This is Virat Kohli. You can learn this from him,” he added.
