Pathan explains similarities between Virat Kohli and Sourav Ganguly

It was under the leadership of Sourav Ganguly that India started playing a different brand of cricket, that had its roots in the belief that giving it back to the opponent was not ungentlemanlike. It was rather a sign of the fact that you meant business. Virat Kohli has ensured to carry forward the legacy of Dada, creating a team of enthusiastic men who play their game with the same philosophy. While there have been arguments against his nature of play and how he conducts himself and his team on the field, most of them fall flat when matches against the results Kohli’s India have produced in the last few years.

But it’s not just about the style of captaincy that makes Virat Kohli similar to Sourav Ganguly, but also how he backs the youngsters, feels Irfan Pathan.

“He is very similar to Sourav Ganguly as well. A guy who backs his youngsters really, really well. Virat Kohli has that aura about him, that he goes out of his way to back the youngsters,” said the former India pacer Pathan on Star Sports chat show Cricket Connected.

“We have seen that with Rishabh Pant, we have seen the press conferences, he goes and says, ‘No, we need to back a guy like Rishabh Pant purely on his potential’,” he added.

Ganguly too realizes the potential Virat Kohli has. The BCCI president recently revealed in an interview that he had spoken to Virat Kohli with regards to India’s tour of Australia scheduled for later this year.

“I said, ‘because you’re Virat Kohli, your standards are high. When you walk to play, when you walk with your team, I, watching on TV, don’t expect you to just play well against Australia. I expect you to win,” Ganguly told India Today.

“So, for me, that is what it is. Because you have set the standards. It’s not anybody else. So, you have to live up to the standards’,” Ganguly further added.