Former West Indies legend Brian Lara said he would have adopted Virat Kohli’s approach of sticking to traditional strokes to succeed in today’s game. He commented while replying to ex-England skipper Michael Vaughan, who asked whether Lara would have used unorthodox shots to thrive in the modern era.
Lara, who still holds the records for the highest individual scores in both Test (400*) and first-class (501*) cricket, is among the elite group of players to have scored over 10,000 runs in both Tests and ODIs. He retired from international cricket in 2007, just as the T20 format began gaining prominence, and never featured in a T20I for the West Indies.
Speaking on the Stick to Cricket podcast, Brian Lara reflected on how he would have adjusted his game in today’s era. He pointed to Kohli’s example as someone who succeeds by sticking to classical technique (via Indian Express):
“At the end of the day, I think I had enough shots to survive. And I look at guys like Virat Kohli, they don’t do much of that (reverse sweeps). So I think I would have been one of the players who would have, instead of playing a reverse sweep down to third man, would have hit them over extra cover.”
He further added:
“I have a little boy in Australia who wants to play and that’s all what he wants to do..smack the ball and do all the fancy stuff. First of all, I am happy in he period that I played in. Played a lot of Tests. Everybody would like to be in the T20s (now) with all the funds involved.”
Virat Kohli has been part of many T20 wins in the past two years
After years of hard work as both a batter and captain, Virat Kohli finally tasted consecutive team success in T20 cricket over the past two years. He played a key role in guiding India to their second T20 World Cup title, held in the West Indies and the USA last year.
Although he had a quiet tournament overall, Kohli rose to the occasion in the final against South Africa, scoring a match-winning 76 off 59 balls. He carried that momentum into the IPL 2025 season, helping Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) secure their first-ever title.
Kohli was again the top scorer in the final against Punjab Kings (PBKS) and led the season with 657 runs at an average close to 55.
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