India vs Australia | Virat Kohli a champion player, says Ian Chappell

The unassailable lead of 2-1 the Indian team has taken has come on the back of an outstanding batting performance by India’s middle order backed by a relentless bowling attack. In the same vein former Australian captain Ian Chappel has commended the linchpin of Indian batting order Virat Kohli and Cheteshawar Pujara. 

“He is a very good player. It doesn’t matter where I place him because a champion in one era would be a champion in any other era. What pleases me most is that he has been successful in all three formats by playing traditional cricket shots like Viv Richards used to do,” Chappel said to TNN.

While Virat Kohli was pushed to the third position on the most run scorer's list for the series by Rishabh Pant, who scored an unbeaten 159 in his latest innings. Cheteshwar Pujara has stood a class apart and has scored 521 runs from seven innings at an average of almost 74.

“He is a good player. The only problem is he doesn’t think enough about scoring runs. At times it looks to me that he is batting in the nets — just happy to play out deliveries. He shouldn’t get bogged down as much as he does,” he added.

All throughout the Border-Gavaskar series, no Australian batsman has managed to score a century. Chappell explained as to what is ailing the Australian cricket at the moment and stated the reason for Australia’s downfall in the series.

“A lot of factors have combined to lead us where we are today. Technical issues, lack of systematic coaching, focus on shorter formats and the adverse effects of IPL and BBL have all played a part,” Chappell asserted.

“I think the problem is the talent is not maturing. Greg (Chappell) says that there is a lot of young talent around. Unfortunately, after they are getting into the system, they are going off the rails. So I think the system is partly responsible. The club and inter-state cricket also have got issues and are not developing the talents properly,” he added.