Enjoy Virat Kohli’s aggression, India needs captain like him, confesses Madan Lal
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Former Indian all-rounder Madan Lal has revealed that the Indian national team needs a captain like Virat Kohli, who is in equal measure aggressive and proactive. He also does not understand why the Indian fans are asking the captain to mellow down and trusts Kohli to ‘come back strong.’
After a rather un Kohli-esque performance in New Zealand both with the bat and as a leader, critics have pointed their fingers at the Indian skipper to ‘mellow down.’ However, former Indian player and now a member of the CAC, Lal revealed that India needs a captain like Virat Kohli who is aggressive.
He also made the comparison that people from the yesteryear were of the complaint that India does not have an aggressive hand in play. One of the trademarks of this Indian team is the aggression, which has helped them to a victory in the Border-Gavaskar series against Australia away from home.
"First, everyone wanted a very aggressive captain and now you want Kohli to stop his aggressive streak. I love the way he is on the field. Earlier, people used to say that Indians are not aggressive; now that we've become aggressive people question that and ask why we are so aggressive. I enjoy Kohli's aggression; we need a captain like him. I don't understand why people in India are asking him to mellow down," he told Times of India.
He also urged the Indian crowd not to ‘mellow down,’ from the aggression as he believes that is what sets sides apart from the other. Despite Kohli’s failure in New Zealand, where he scored a combined 38 runs in the four innings of the two Tests, Lal believes that such a downslide does occur to a player of Kohli’s calibre. He admits that it is only time before Kohli returns to his natural-self and tonks the bowlers all over the park.
More than his runs in New Zealand, questions were raised on his technique against the swinging delivery which came to the fore after six years. Repeatedly in the series, Kohli was seen poking delivery outside the fifth stump line, which brought his own downfall.
"He was out of form. You can say it was a loss of confidence. That (series against New Zealand) doesn't take anything away from him. He is still the world's best player. At times, technical flaws come in and you then try harder and harder but still you don't come out of it. It happens to the best of players," he stated.
