New Delhi: Amid the growing controversy and "toxicity" (as referred to by some) between the two teams, former Australian captain Steve Waugh has praised the Indian skipper Virat Kohli. He feels that there is a little of himself and Ricky Ponting in the way Kohli leads his side.
Since the DRS fiasco at the Bengaluru Test early this month, Virat Kohli has been at the centre of all the disputes in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Test series. Not only did former players of the game lash out at the 28-year-old, Aussie media too came out to compare Kohli to US President Donald Trump. Cricket Australia chief James Sutherland took a dig at the Indian skipper saying that he isn't sure whether Kohli knows how to spell the word 'sorry'.
But on the contrary, few former cricketers from Down Under came forth to applaud Kohli and his aggression. Michael Clarke, Adam Gilchrist and Brad Hogg are among the few on the list and now Steve Waugh is the new entrant.
"He's obviously a very aggressive captain, he encourages a lot of talk amongst his troops and he's got positive body language," praised Waugh, in his Facebook Live interview, "And they're all the traits that I liked in my sides."
On comparing the Delhi boy to his successor Ricky Ponting, the legend remembered how the latter used to roll up his sleeves and would go into bat-pad if required and led his team by example.
"Virat Kohli certainly does that,"he remarked.
All three – Waugh, Ponting and Kohli, have led their side to more than 25 Test matches. Ponting and Waugh enjoyed 62.33 and 71.92 win per cent respectively, making them the most successful Test captains of all time.
However, what is impressive is that Kohli, at such a young age, is just a few steps behind them with win percentage as 61.53 per cent in 26 Test matches.
Although a couple of days back, the former Aussie batsman was perturbed that Kohli was using Bengaluru crowd against the Aussies in the second Test, which the visitors lost by 75 runs.
"He's the new face of India, he can get in your face, he's aggressive, he's positive, and he leads in a certain way so the other guys know how he wants the team to play," said Steve as he concluded.
The fourth and final match of the series will be played Dharamsala, starting March 25.
