India captain Virat Kohli burst onto the International scene way back in 2008 and since then the Delhi-born batsman has been the most influential cricketer that India has ever produced. His tendency to chase down mammoth targets make him a batsman par excellence. He is often termed as one of the greatest batsman that the world has ever seen, however former Windies spinner Carl Hooper feels Virat is a good batsman but far from being a “great”.
Hooper feels that Virat can not be compared to the likes of Sir Vivian Richards and Indian maestro Sachin Tendulkar as yet. He however feels that Virat may attain the status of “great” by the time he is nearing an end to his career.
“Virat is a very good player. Is he a great player? I don’t know. But by the time he’s finished he’s going to be there,” he said while talking to CricketNext.
Hooper feels that the bowling standards have sinked
The former West Indian spinner feels that Sachin Tendulkar faced some world beating bowlers like Wasim Akram, Curtley Ambrose, Waqar Younis and Courtney Walsh while the current era of bowling standards have dipped considerably. He also criticized the West Indies team for failing to put up a commendable fight and compared them with taking candy from a child.
“It’s difficult to say, it’s a different era. When you look at Sri Lanka or Pakistan, the standard dipped. Sachin scored his runs against bowlers like Wasim, Waqar, Ambrose, and Walsh. But when you look at the current West Indies team, it’s like taking a candy from a child. It’s hard to make a comparison between eras but from a stats point of view,” he said.
Hooper said that Virat Kohli certainly doesn’t reminds him of Vivian Richards and said that the Indian captain is a different player with style of play differing from Richards.
“No, a totally different player. We’ll probably never see another Viv Richards. Kohli is a very good player but not in that intimidating way that Viv was. Kohli will probably go down as one of the greats when he finishes but I don’t think I’ve seen another player that demands respect like Viv Richards,” he concluded.
