India's Virat Kohli will be joining an exalted group of 11 Indian cricketers to have played 100 or more Test matches on Friday in Mohali against Sri Lanka. One in that elite list is Sourav Ganguly, now the president of the BCCI. The past few months saw Kohli's India captainship stint end on a bitter note. Kohli, without naming Ganguly, had a public disagreement over the sequence of events in lead up to his resignation as T20I captain. He later lost the ODI captainship and resigned as Test skipper too.
Speaking from London, where he is on a short family holiday, Ganguly refused to revisit the episode. He was however, happy to welcome Kohli to the 100-Test club and promised to be there in person in Mohali “to watch Virat’s 100th Test match”.
“To begin with, you need to be a very good player to get there,” Ganguly said. “Very few people in Indian cricket have played 100 Test matches. It’s a fantastic landmark. Virat is a great player and deserves every bit of it.”
Kohli made his limited overs India debut in 2008, the same year when Ganguly retired from Tests. By then, Ganguly was already done playing limited overs cricket and Kohli’s Test debut would come three years later. “I haven’t played with him. But I have always followed his game," Ganguly said. "Having been involved in different capacities, I have always tracked his cricket. I have seen his career from when it started and how it took a different turn after a few years and it has now gone to greatness.”
{{/usCountry}}Kohli made his limited overs India debut in 2008, the same year when Ganguly retired from Tests. By then, Ganguly was already done playing limited overs cricket and Kohli’s Test debut would come three years later. “I haven’t played with him. But I have always followed his game," Ganguly said. "Having been involved in different capacities, I have always tracked his cricket. I have seen his career from when it started and how it took a different turn after a few years and it has now gone to greatness.”
{{/usCountry}}Kohli was seen as Sachin Tendulkar's heir apparent and he was the man who strode out to bat after Tendulkar’s final Test dismissal in Mumbai. From then on, Kohli took over the mantle of being India’s No.4 batter. “Expectations will always be there when you play at this level," Ganguly said. “I don’t compare different generations. But whatever number he has batted, whether it is No.4 in Test matches or No.3 in limited overs cricket, he has batted marvelously.
“His technique, his positivity, his footwork, his balance…I like all of that” he said. “Above all, the way Virat changed his game after 2014 in England when he was struggling. I saw that Test series because I was working as a commentator there. And he had a remarkable five years after that. That’s what normally happens. I saw that with Rahul Dravid between 2002 to 2005. You see great players having these phases where they are at their peak. Sachin had many.”
Interestingly, the Mohali Test match will be Kohli’s first after seven years as simply a player and not the leader.
“It does require some adjustments. But I don’t think it’s very difficult,” said Ganguly. “He will come back and get hundreds. I know about all this talk, with him not getting a hundred for over two years. But he is too good a player to consistently go through this. He will get past this phase too. He knows how to get hundreds otherwise he would not have got 70 of them. As a former player, I know he will start scoring them again. He has enormous ability, so it’s a matter of time."