Kolkata: India skipper Virat Kohli has almost surpassed all the greats including South African legend Jacques Kallis in scoring most number of runs and international hundreds except master blaster Sachin Tendulkar. As per Kallis if the run machine remains hungry for a long time, he might break Sachin’s record as well.
“He is a world class player. He has proved that over the years. People enjoy watching him bat and the thing about him is he keeps it very simple. He is very handy. He works very hard on his game which shows he is hungry to be on ground for a long time. Who knows what he can achieve.”
“If he is fit enough and willing enough to go that far, then certainly not unreachable,” Kallis said on Kohli amassing a century of centuries. Currently, he has 66 tons (41 in ODIs and 25 in Tests).
Kallis rubbished talk about Kohli being under pressure as captain after India’s humiliating 3-2 defeat at home against Australia.
“I don’t know too much about Indian cricket setup but I don’t think he is under too much pressure to be honest. He has produced the goods time and time again. The guys follow what he does. He is certainly one of the best in the world,” Kallis added.
Asked about South Africa’s chances, Kallis said the Proteas will go into the mega-event as underdogs for the first time.
“We probably go in as the least favourite that we have been. Sometimes it isn’t a bad thing. It might take the pressure off them. They can come through and play some good cricket at the right time. You cannot write them off,” said Kallis.
The Kolkata Knight Riders head coach feels that it will be a bonus for them as they will play all their home matches at home.
“It’s a big bonus for us. We love playing in front of our home crowd, we know the conditions well and we get great support here. So for us it’s a massive bonus,” said Kallis.
On being asked about having advantage of power hitters like Chris Lynn, Carlos Brathwaite & Sunil Narine in the team, Kallis said,” I think there are lot of good power hitters in our side whatever combination we come up with. We are looking forward to that. Then again we got to set the base and make sure that we give them an opportunity to get that license.”