Flamboyant batter KL Rahul heaped huge praise on Virat Kohli for his captaincy tenure of the Indian cricket team and said he instilled the winning belief in the team that they can beat any opposition outside of India. Kohli, who stepped down as T20I captain last year, relinquished his Test captaincy last week. While he was sacked as the ODI skipper after he quit T20I leadership as the selectors wanted a single captain in the limited-overs format.
Rahul, who played a lot of cricket under Kohli’s leadership, said that the 33-year-old has set a standard for all the players and now it’s on them to build upon that.
“Team India has done some phenomenal things under Virat Kohli’s leadership. We won a series outside of India, which hasn’t been done before. We have gone to every country and won a series. He has done a lot of things right and he has already set a standard for all of us and for Team India. It’s all about for us and as a team to build upon that. We have to take it forward, keep improving as individuals and try to stay as disciplined and determined as we can and go out there and enjoy our cricket. Every series gives us a different opportunity,” KL Rahul said in the press conference ahead of 1st ODI against South Africa.
Rahul talked about how Kohli got the best out of every player, which he also wants to carry on as the leader. The 29-year-old will lead the Indian team in the upcoming ODI series against South Africa in the absence of Rohit Sharma.
“When it comes to leadership, Virat has this amazing ability to get the best out of everybody. He pushed everybody and made us believe we can do special things and that’s something I’ve learnt from him and hopefully, I can do that with the team as well,” Rahul added.
The opening batter further talked about Kohli’s passion for Test cricket and said he instilled the winning belief in the Indian team.
“The whole world knows how passionate Virat Kohli is about Test cricket or just about general cricket. He led from the front. He brought a lot of changes to the team and the winning belief currently in the team is largely because of Virat as a leader. He has made us all believe in ourselves and believe we can go outside of India and beat any team. I want to continue that and build on it and get better as a team,” Rahul said.
Get all the IPL news and Cricket Score here
.