Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan reckons current skipper Virat Kohli is much like Sourav Ganguly in backing the youngsters in the side. Ganguly refined young cricketers to world-class stars who we know of today in the form of Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni, to name a few.
Ganguly took over the reins during tumultuous times marred with fixing claims in 2000. The current BCCI President fought his way to the top taking Indian cricket forward. He backed his players very well as India found some of the greats, who served the country for a decade after Ganguly stepped down.
Kohli backs youngsters like Ganguly – Irfan Pathan
Irfan Pathan, who played under Sourav Ganguly, reckons Virat Kohli is much like the former. Kohli, who shares the trait of being aggressive much like Ganguly, backs the youngsters to express themselves in the field fees Irfan. The former cricketer highlighted the example of Rishabh Pant to back his views.
“He (Virat Kohli) is very similar to Sourav Ganguly as well. A guy who backs his youngsters really, really well,” Irfan said while speaking on Star Sports Cricket Connected show.
“Virat Kohli has that aura about him that he goes out of his way to back the youngsters. We have seen that with Rishabh Pant, we have seen the press conferences, he goes to and says, ‘No, we need to back a guy like Rishabh Pant purely on his potential’,” he added.
Meanwhile, Virat Kohli has witnessed rich success with the Indian team despite not winning any ICC trophy so far. He led his side to the No.1 spot in the ICC Rankings for a couple of years apart from his success in the limited-overs. Despite enjoying quality success, Kohli has received a fair share of criticisms. He will hope to shrug them off when he comes out to lead India again after COVID-19 ends.