‘At the present moment, I have played more than he has…’: Sourav Ganguly opens up on being compared to Virat Kohli
BCCI president and former India skipper Sourav Ganguly lavished praise on Virat Kohli and said the star batter is more skilful than him as a player. Kohli, who went through a dry run of form, rediscovered his lost mojo during the Asia Cup 2022, where he hit his first international century since November 2019. His ton versus Afghanistan was his first in the 20-over format as he touched the three-figure score in nearly three years – his last hundred coming in a Test match against Bangladesh.
On the YouTube channel TRS Clips, Ganguly spoke highly of Kohli with reference to his skillset. He predicted that the 33-year-old will have more appearances than him at the end of his career.
“The comparison should be in terms of skill as a player. I think he is more skilful than I’m. We played in different generations, and we played a lot of cricket. I played in my generation, and he will continue playing, probably playing more games than I did. Currently, I have played more than what he has but he’ll get past that. He is tremendous,” said Ganguly.
Before the commencement of Asia Cup, Ganguly had predicted Kohli’s return to form, saying a player of his calibre won’t undergo such an extended lean patch.
“He’s a very big player, there for a long time. I know he has his own formula to score runs. It’s not possible that players of his stature can’t have such a long lean patch, I know he will definitely score runs. If he was not a great player, he would not have scored so many runs for so long,” Ganguly had said on the sidelines of a media event in Kolkata.
During his interaction on TRS Clips, Ganguly also spoke about the new generation of cricketers playing more aggressively than the previous lot. He explained how the game has changed over time.
“Yeah, the game is different, the game is faster… shorter and faster, more sixes, more boundaries, not many deliveries left outside the off stump. So the game has changed,” said the 50-year-old.
The veteran left-handed batter advised players to focus and give their time to the game and the rest will follow, when asked about how younger cricketers should handle the glitz and glamour in modern-day cricket.
