Kohli, Ashwin, Vijay top picks from my selection tenure: Srikkanth

Srikkanth feels Kohli remains one of the top selections from his tenure.

India skipper Virat Kohli has in the last few years taken world cricket by storm and the accolades refuse to stop. But one of the men instrumental in backing him in his initial days as an international cricket is then selector Kris Srikkanth, who feels Kohli remains one of his top selections of his tenure.

Virat Kohli ahead of the second Test between India and South Africa last year(AFP)

“Virat Kohli, R Ashwin and Murali Vijay are my top picks as a selector, the way they grew and were groomed, I’m really proud of,” Srikkanth said on the Cricket Connected Show on Star Sports 1 Tamil.

Recently, England great Ian Botham called Kohli the perfect guy to lead the Indian team and he would have loved to play against the current India skipper.

“Virat takes the game to the opposition, he takes a stand for his players. I would have loved to play against him. He is the right guy to take Indian cricket forward,” Botham had said while speaking in an online chat session with Playwrite Foundation.

Agreeing with Botham, former England batsman Kevin Pietersen had recently rated Kohli above the legendary Sachin Tendulkar purely on the basis of Kohli’s chasing skills. In an Instagram live video chat with commentator and former Zimbabwe quick Pommie Mbangwa, Kohli received Petersen’s pick because of the number of times he has managed to successfully complete chases.

“Kohli is a freakshow, his record chasing winning games for India with the amount of pressure he lives under, Smith does not even come close to him,” said Pietersen. “His chasing numbers are frightening, he averages more than 80 when it comes to chasing, he consistently wins games for India, he keeps on turning the numbers, and this matters to me as to how many games you win for your country.”