Former Team India coach Lalchand Rajput has heaped praise on Virat Kohli ahead of his 300th ODI, claiming that his fitness even after playing so many games has left him stunned. Rajput, who coached the Men in Blue to T20 World Cup success in 2007, hailed Kohli's anger and his willingness to prove that he is number one in the world.
The former skipper will become the seventh Indian cricketer to play 300 ODIs when the Men in Blue face New Zealand on Sunday, joining Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, MS Dhoni, Mohammad Azharuddin, Sourav Ganguly and Yuvraj Singh.
Speaking to PTI, Rajput stated:
"To be very honest, when I first met him, I said that he is the one guy who will break Sachin Tendulkar's record. And he is very close to that. But still, he has the same passion, the same hunger for scoring runs. And I think 300 is a lot of games. After playing so many games, still he is so fit. And still, every run is important for him and he values his wicket. That is the plus point. He doesn't want to throw his wicket away. He always wants to show the world why he is number one in the world."
"Words fall short to express how good a player he's been" - KL Rahul on Virat Kohli
During the press conference on Friday in Dubai, KL Rahul said he was quite pleased to see Kohli score a hundred against Pakistan and hopes for the veteran to do it against the Black Caps as well. Rahul said, as quoted by NDTV:
"That's a lot of ODI games and a lot of international games, and yeah, he's been. I mean, words fall short to express how good a player he's been and what a great servant of Indian cricket he's been. Yeah, I'm really happy to see that he got the 100 last game as well, and he's been batting really well, and for a player of his calibre, it was about time that he scores that big century and a match-winning century."
