Fast bowling legend calls Virat Kohli ‘most important cricketer ever’ and exalts his relentless ‘drive’ to win

Stuart Broad also likens his trophies with RCB to Rory McIlroy’s back-to-back wins at the Masters.

Updated on: Jun 1, 2026, 19:19:40 IST

Written by Prateek Srivastava

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Stuart Broad, one of two fast bowlers to take 600 Test wickets, has praised India and Royal Challengers Bengaluru batsman Virat Kohli unequivocally after the former captain’s important contribution to RCB winning back-to-back IPL titles on Sunday night at Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium. Chasing 156 to win against Gujarat Titans, Kohli led with 75 not out as RCB won the match rather comfortably with 12 balls to go and five wickets in hand.

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Broad said there is hardly any tournament that Kohli has not won in the last 15 years or so. He goes on to say Kohli could be the most important cricketer during this period. “There is an argument that he could be the most important cricketer ever in such a moving environment that we've seen over the last, sort of, 15 years. For clarity on his achievements, he's won the under-19 World Cup as captain. Champions Trophy trophy twice, ODI World Cup, T20 World Cup, held the World Test Championship Mace as captain for 3 years and now 2 IPL titles,” Broad said on the "For the Love of Cricket'" podcast.

One couldn't agree more!

Broad also brought up golfer Rory McIlroy’s example, who took 11 years to break his major jinx. After a major in 2014, his next major came in 2025 at the Masters. Earlier this year, he won it again. It’s pretty similar to Kohli, who took 18 years to win an IPL last season and then just like that, there came another.

“And it did feel like the IPL was going to be the one that slipped past him, didn't it? It's sort of that Rory McIlroy scenario where everyone was sort of desperate for him to win. It looked like he just wasn't going to get over the line. And then once he's won it, gone back to back. And there must have been some good leadership around that group, including him, to be able to, I don't know, it's not easy to go back to back. It's not easy just to turn up for the next season. Oh, we'll just do it again. You know, you have to reset your goals. You have to reset your motivation and drive. And Kohli just never lacks drive, does he?” the 39-year-old said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Prateek Srivastava
Prateek Srivastava is a senior sports journalist having been in the profession for two decades now. He started his print career with the India Today Group and later also worked for the Asian Age. In 2009, sensing the wind of change, he switched to the digital media and joined Mobile ESPN. There, he covered the 2011 Cricket World Cup and 2010 Hockey World Cup as a venue reporter. He did plenty of voice-over work too, over there. After leaving Mobile ESPN, Prateek went on to work for Cricketnext, Gocricket and Cricbuzz. At Gocricket (Times Internet Limited), he covered the 2014 T20 World from Bangladesh. There he also received a team leadership award, given at the end of the month. Prateek has also covered the 2016 T20 World Cup in India, this time working for Sportz Interactive. He also worked for Chinese giants Alibaba over two years and led their ""Short News"" content team at UC Browser. While cricket is Prateek’s expertise, he has also done a lot of golf. In fact, he has covered India’s first two European Tour events back in the late noughties. He has also done extensive writing on football having been associated with the Indian Super League for three seasons. Finally, Prateek is a literature aficionado and swears by Philip Roth and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and when he doesn’t joke, he is usually quiet and at work.Read More

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