Did Kohli make the difference?

[vvvslaxman]

I knew the day it happened. Infact that news got lot of attention even at that time.

[Ram]

Virat Kohli has the mental resilience and maturity of a 30 year old man, in the body of a 22 year old. P.S; Just to present a contrast, Shahid Afridi has the mental resilience and maturity of a two week old tadpole, in the body of a 33 year old human.

[BERGKAMP]

Fair play, he has completely changed my opinion of him during the last few weeks. At first I thought he was a bit of a loud mouthed show pony without much substance, but I think this kid can be something very special for Indian cricket.

[philcric]

Kohli seems to have the temperament and technique for the big league. He has lot of confidence and form as well, having played some really important knocks in the last one year. Probably not going to happen but I feel this is the right time for Dravid to hang up his boots and get Kohli in the test team. Pujara at #3 and Kohli at #6. I think they'd do quite well at test level.

[rkt.india]

I read that when he played that Ranji match 3 years ago...

[Ultimate_Game]

Kohli seems to have the temperament and technique for the big league. He has lot of confidence and form as well, having played some really important knocks in the last one year. Probably not going to happen but I feel this is the right time for Dravid to hang up his boots and get Kohli in the test team. Pujara at #3 and Kohli at #6. I think they'd do quite well at test level.

Yup. I think Pujara and Kohli should be ahead of Raina and Yuvraj for tests. With Murali Vijay also performing well in Tests and Ajinkya Rahane waiting in the wings I think our batting is in safe hands. Dravid should be asked to sit out as we don't want all the seniors (Tendulkar, VVS and Dravid) to go out at the same time. Now is the right time to blood Pujara, Kohli & Rahane along with Vijay. It's the bowling which is the worry, especially the pace bowling. I hope Irfan comes back stronger from his injury, Sreesanth is able to overcome his mental block, Ishant is able to regain his mojo, Munaf starts bowling in 140s like he showed in the semi final, RP Singh & Praveen Kumar regain their form after injuries, Aaron Varun is able to bowl good line & length at 150+, Ojha develops a bit more, Mishra & Chawla are able to get more control over their bowling, and we unearth a couple of fast bowling all-rounders or maybe a couple of real quick pacers

[indiafan]

Virat is an excellent prospect, as long as he lets his cricket do the talking, he will be a huge success. Its great to hear about the Ranji trophy incident, and I hope that he carries on playing with the same passion.

[ganeshran]

Virat Kohli has the mental resilience and maturity of a 30 year old man, in the body of a 22 year old. P.S; Just to present a contrast, Shahid Afridi has the mental resilience and maturity of a two week old tadpole, in the body of a 33 year old human.

Afridi is 18 years old. He is young, but will learn :phehehe:

[Mamu]

Virat Kohli has the mental resilience and maturity of a 30 year old man, in the body of a 22 year old. P.S; Just to present a contrast, Shahid Afridi has the mental resilience and maturity of a two week old tadpole, in the body of a 33 year old human.

Uh oh -- PETA is all charged up now. How on the earth do you insult a tadpole ?

[Dhondy]

I respect Dhondy's comments, but that is not on. Kohli has beeen special for us. He was our best bat going into the world cup and i agree he underachieved in this world cup, but still performed well at times. At times, he came pretty late too to bat. He never gave away the game, he atleast made 20-30s everytime, just sucks is that he didn't carry on Throughout the saf tour, he was our best bat. He is special, and one should start believing it. The image of him holding Sachin will be played again and again after 5-10 years, when Kohli would be ouir most Important bat or when he will achieve a personal big milestone.

Cricketics, I hope you see my point now. Three failures in 3 Test innings, but more than that, it's the way he's been getting out. He just can't handle the heavy ball on the off stump. Any half decent fast bowler will have him for lunch. Sorry to disappoint you, but India have had a dozen players like him in the last 10 years alone. He's in a tier below the likes of test reject Wasim Jaffer. Please don't mistake Test cricket for ODI cricket. There's no place to hide.

[ganeshran]

I still say he will do well at test cricket.

[The Outsider]

Cricketics, I hope you see my point now. Three failures in 3 Test innings, but more than that, it's the way he's been getting out. He just can't handle the heavy ball on the off stump. Any half decent fast bowler will have him for lunch. Sorry to disappoint you, but India have had a dozen players like him in the last 10 years alone. He's in a tier below the likes of test reject Wasim Jaffer. Please don't mistake Test cricket for ODI cricket. There's no place to hide.

He has handled Steyn and Morkel with comfort in South Africa in ODIs - it's only a matter of time before he will come good in tests.

[urbestfriend]

Kohli will definitely come good in spite of his bad form and he is the one for the future, but I dont know when he'll get his next chance in test cricket..Hopefully he scores big in next 3 innings..

[Chandan]

He has handled Steyn and Morkel with comfort in South Africa in ODIs - it's only a matter of time before he will come good in tests.

But when will that time come Shwetabh? 3 innings have gone!

[Cricket Tragic]

He is special. When our established test players were struggling to pick Mendis and looking clueless' date= Kohli played him with ridiculous ease without having hint of problem. You will eat your words very soon. Mahela was a total failure in world cup 2003. Inzi was a total failure in world cup 2003. THere are so many world cup failures i can show. That won't make them "nothing special".

Only Dravid and Laxman looked clueless against Mendis, not all the established batsmen.

[ravishingravi]

I am not in the least bit surprised by this. I am not a hater just that I have not seen him perform in tough conditions other 1 Odi against Sa. I certainly dont have the faith that some others have in the boy.

[The Outsider]

But when will that time come Shwetabh? 3 innings have gone!

Come on! You are talking as if it's been 3 series! He has a good technique, good ODI record, good temperament, good FC record - it's only a matter of time that sorts out the glitches and succeeds. Maybe not in this run, maybe an year down the line.

[Dhondy]

He has handled Steyn and Morkel with comfort in South Africa in ODIs - it's only a matter of time before he will come good in tests.

I beg to differ. ODI can never be a metric for judging Test performance, otherwise you would be the biggest fan of Yuvraj Singh. He gets out defending- that's a bad sign. you can reign in the rash shots, gain a bit of composure, but if you can't defend the reasonably good ball on the off, that's your basics outta the window. No redress for that. I have no doubt that if given a chance on Indian pitches, he'll do moderately well, because the pitch is taken out of the equation. But not abroad, not in Tests.

[Sachin=GOD]

But when will that time come Shwetabh? 3 innings have gone!

"just" 3 innings have gone. Give the guy some time. We've given many more matches to far worse players so Kohli definitely deserves a long run in the side to prove himself.

[sarcastic]

I beg to differ. ODI can never be a metric for judging Test performance, otherwise you would be the biggest fan of Yuvraj Singh. He gets out defending- that's a bad sign. you can reign in the rash shots, gain a bit of composure, but if you can't defend the reasonably good ball on the off, that's your basics outta the window. No redress for that. I have no doubt that if given a chance on Indian pitches, he'll do moderately well, because the pitch is taken out of the equation. But not abroad, not in Tests.

May be you have to eat some humble pies soon if you are gonna make such remarks just as yet!!!