Kapil Dev urges Virat Kohli to play county cricket before the England Tour

03/07/2018

Former India captain Kapil Dev believes that a stint in the County Championship before this year’s England Tour will help Virat Kohli. The legendary all-rounder said that to be termed as the best player in the world, one has to get runs all around the world.

Virat Kohli averages a poor 13.40 in the 5 Tests that he has played in England so far. It is the only country where he hasn’t got runs. In 2014, he was found wanting as his weakness against the swinging ball was exposed. However, post the England tour, the Kohli has worked hard on his weakness and has grown over the years.

Legendary all-rounder and former India captain Kapil Dev thinks that a stint in County cricket would help Kohli before this year’s Test series in England. He believes that the current Indian captain has the temperament to do well in England. Dev also reckons that if one wants to become the best player in the world, he has to score runs in all conditions.

“What we're seeing, with his temperament, I think he's good enough. It all depends if he gets a good start. He has the ability. If he can play a season or two in English county cricket there would be nothing wrong, because if you want to be the best player in the world you have to get runs everywhere,” the 1983 World Cup-winning captain told British Media.

Dev gave the example of Allan Border, Viv Richards and Sunil Gavaskar and how they performed and got runs in all conditions. He also thought that England is considered as the toughest place to get runs and if Virat Kohli wants to get rid of that question mark, he needs to get runs there.

“That's what we used to say about Allan Border or Vivian Richards or Sunil Gavaskar - they were players to play any part, anywhere, any kind of conditions, they used to perform. Virat Kohli, the question mark is in front of him, it's there. He has to get runs where it is considered to be the toughest conditions in the world,” the 59-year old remarked.

As of now, two Indian players have signed up to play this year’s county season. Ishant Sharma will play for Sussex while Cheteshwar Pujara will represent Yorkshire.