Don’t Think We Will Fully Appreciate it Until After He Concludes Playing: Ian Bishop on Kohli's Legacy

Team India began their home season with a tremendous win in the first game against the West Indies, winning the contest by eight wickets to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match ODI series. Speaking on JioHotstar’s ‘Haier Cricket Live’, JioStar experts Ian Bishop and Varun Aaron discussed Virat Kohli’s unmatched consistency, which took him past the milestone of 15,000 ODI runs, Kuldeep Yadav’s match-winning performance, and Rohit Sharma’s quick start.

“You have to love what you do to evolve as he has done over such a long period of time. I think this puts him in a rarefied atmosphere, given that he has achieved 15,000 runs in 74 fewer innings than the great Sachin Tendulkar, whom I hold in high regard, having played against him. Where his legacy will end, he certainly has to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest, batter in this format of the game. I mean, this is extraordinary. A lot of these fans watching on television and here in the ground appreciate it, but I don’t think we will fully appreciate it until some time after he concludes his playing days.

“Virat is different in that respect, the appetite that he has for runs, his calculation of how to chase a total, I think that is unsurpassed in this game. Virat has a sense of occasion that he may not confess to, but again, that's his evolution. I still can’t believe 15,000... I know Sachin got there, but that’s a heck of a lot of runs. So, if I had flowers right now, I’d give them to him because he certainly deserves his flowers."

“It’s something that we’re all very aware of, because I have grown tired of hearing players say, ‘This is the way I play,’ and people outside the game saying, ‘When you reach a certain age, you can’t learn new tricks.’ If I were to take one thing away from what Virat Kohli has been doing over the years, it’s that he’s saying it’s never too late to evolve his attacking game, to adapt to how T20 or white-ball cricket has moved, to develop his power game and hit the number of sixes that he has tonight at his age. It shows that where there is a will, many times, if you’re smart enough, you will find a way. And if any cricketer can take anything away from this, that is what I want them to remember: don’t stay in your comfort zone. Batter, bowler, fielder, captain, get out of your comfort zone.”

“That should have never been the case, Kuldeep getting dropped and not getting opportunities. He is a gun bowler. He’s a wicket-taker, and he’s a match-winner. On that wicket, to get that kind of turn and bounce is not easy at all. We heard Shai Hope saying that they were at least 60 or 70 runs short. So, on a wicket that flat, Kuldeep Yadav has delivered the goods, not just with his wickets, but also with his economy. He stemmed the flow of runs right from the outset. And after that, the moment he got those two or three wickets, I think West Indies were on the back foot.”

“He has been in scintillating form. The way he started the innings was absolutely sublime. Shubman Gill got a chance, but Rohit Sharma was chanceless up until that ball. He would really be annoyed with himself to get out on this wicket in that fashion, because that wasn’t a very good delivery. It was a half-volley on his legs, he could have done anything with it, but he hit it straight down the square leg’s throat. At the end of the day, both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are looking in great form. I think we’re in good hands. Our openers are really good, and our number three has obviously shown us in this game what he can do.”