Virat Kohli similar to me when it comes to attitude, states AB de Villiers
De Villiers noted that Kohli was similar to him
|South African stalwart AB de Villiers, who has been Virat Kohli’s teammate at RCB for almost a decade now, has claimed the Indian skipper is similar to him in terms of the way he mentally approaches every game. De Villiers noted that Kohli’s desire and hunger separated him from the rest.
Despite being one of the most talented and gifted stroke-makers in the world of cricket, it is Virat Kohli’s indestructible frame of mind that is seen as his biggest strength, and it is also one of the reasons why the Indian skipper has often drawn comparisons with the likes of Michael Jordan and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Kohli’s hunger and desire to win, apart from making him one of the greatest cricketers of all time, has also brought about a physical and mental revolution in Indian cricket as a whole and the benchmark set by the Indian skipper has seen several youngsters take their game to the next level and strive for greatness.
One of the lucky few modern-day non-Indian players to have spent a lot of time with the Indian skipper is South Africa’s AB de Villiers and interestingly, the RCB man believes that Kohli, in fact, mirrors himself when it comes to his approach to matches. De Villiers heaped praise on Kohli’s competitiveness and further noted how the 31-year-old’s desire and hunger separated him from the rest of the cricketers.
"I'd say it's the desire and the hunger that you can't get out of him (which separates him from the rest). I've played both with him and against him, and I've seen the same thing. When you play against him (for South Africa), you know he's not going to be a pushover, especially once the competitive juice starts flowing. He's similar to me in a way,” De Villiers said on the ‘Super Over’ podcast featuring Jemimah Rodrigues and JP Duminy.
“You don't want to show weakness, you don't want to let yourself down and you always want to be the guy to stand up. So I think it separates him from the rest and he does it even better than I do; I feel I'm right up there when it comes to competitiveness. He does it consistently, he's done it in every single game I've seen him play.”
De Villiers, who has now spent 9 seasons with the Royal Challengers Bangalore franchise, also noted how apart from himself and Kohli, Australia’s Steve Smith had the same burning desire that made him great. The Protea legend opined that Smith, who is the number one Test batsman in the world and is widely regarded as the ‘Best since Bradman’, succeeded purely due to his desire, which made him a very tough customer. The 36-year-old further added that Kohli is someone who was born with the desire to fight.
“And I believe Steve Smith is similar in that way, with regards to why he's so good; he's naturally not the most fluent batsman, but there's that deep desire you just can't get out of him. He wants to be the fighter for the team. And Virat, too, has got that in him; he's born with that, I think.”
