Former West Indies skipper Clive Lloyd believes Indian captain Virat Kohli ‘a work-in-progress as a captain’. Llyod, who had led West Indies cricket team in the 1970s and 80s, was in attendance at Lord’s during the ongoing second Test between England and India. Llyod had witnessed how India conceded a 250-run lead at stumps by the third day.
Speaking to the Times of India, Clove Llyod said Virat Kohli is a terrific player and an aggressive captain. However, he is okay with Virat’s aggression as long as he toed the line. “Virat is still a work in progress and it will take us some time to take a final call on his captaincy,” Lloyd said, adding, “But yes, he has shown positive signs. Yes, he is aggressive, but as long as he doesn’t cross the line, it’s fine by me. Aggression, after all, is not a bad thing.”
Advertisement
Lloyd also heaped praises on the 29-year-old Indian captain’s batting ability. Virat scored 200 runs in India’s 31-run loss in Edgbaston, and rose to No.1 in the Tyres ICC Rankings for Test Batsmen by dethroning Australia’s Steven Smith.
“There’s no doubt about the fact that Kohli is an exceptional batsman,” said Lloyd, adding, “He is doing a few great things for his country and if you ask me whether he would have made my side, I would say yes. In fact, Kohli would make a number of great sides across generations.”
Recalling his cricket days, Llyod also spoke about the previous Indian captains he had played with, “When I was playing, I had seen five different Indian captains: Tiger Pataudi, Ajit Wadekar, Bishan Bedi, Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev. They had their own distinctive styles. I found Bedi quite good.”
“In recent times, it has to be Sourav Ganguly and MS Dhoni. Dhoni was such a fantastic captain. He was quite inspirational, a good tactician and led the team with a lot of authority. I liked his style of captaincy,” Llyod added.
