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India skipper Kohli picked by Gower to captain his best Test XI

Former England skipper David Gower in a conversation on SportsTiger’s show “Off-the-Field” discussed his illustrious cricketing career, test-cricket, the Ashes, IPL’s impact, Virat Kohli and how the game has changed over the years.

gower

Jaipur, Sept 1: Former England skipper David Gower in a conversation on SportsTiger’s show “Off-the-Field” discussed his illustrious cricketing career, test-cricket, the Ashes, IPL’s impact, Virat Kohli and how the game has changed over the years.

The former legend who featured for the three-lions in 117 Test matches and 114 One Day Internationals (ODI) scoring 8,231 and 3170 runs respectively seemed mighty impressed by the Indian Captain Virat Kohli and his love for test cricket. Talking about the Indian captain Gower said, “Virat Kohli as the leading player of the world calling test cricket as the toughest and most important form is great PR for the format.”

Gower picked his best Test XI from the current day players and said, “Ben Stokes and Virat Kohli will be the instant picks for him and there are no two ways about it.”

He also picked Joe Root, Kane Williamson and Steve Smith as a part of the team. He also said. “If a current day spinner is to be chosen it would be between Ravichandran Ashwin or Nathan Lyon.”

He also said, “If I have to pick a Captain for the team it will surely be Virat Kohli, what I like about Virat apart from his talent is his passion and absolute drive. Cricket is still a game where you can be a brilliant individual within the team but too much of individuality can also be harmful but Virat is an extraordinary individual contributing to the team.”

Speaking about the upcoming edition of the IPL, Gower stated, “I think overall IPL has been very good for cricketers both for the homegrown and the international players. Ever since the games have got shorter from the time of the invention of ODI, fielding has become incredible. I think T20 has changed a lot since the first days of IPL when IPL was taking some of the great players from around the world at the end of their career. But now, one wants the young players. I feel it is a very good training ground for players.”

But he went on to add that the IPL isn’t going to make you a great test player but the best players in IPL make a huge amount of money. He said, “Kieron Pollard is one of the world’s best T20 players but he knows as well as I do that he cannot play test cricket, he isn’t good enough to play test cricket.”

Gower who has captained England in the ashes and has featured in eight Ashes series commented on the legacy of the series saying, “It is one of the series which has an illustrious history. For an English or Australian cricketer, it means the history of Don Bradman, Keith Miller, Len Hutton, Wally Hammond and W.G. Grace. The first time I was in the dressing room at the Sydney cricket ground, I looked around thinking that there have been some great players who have been in these exact same rooms. The Ashes has that absolute history about it.”

“When I stood at the Oval in 1985 as a winning captain it was an absolutely amazing moment and when I stood there as a losing captain four years later it was a very desolate moment. That is the kind of contrast you see because of the history of the series,” he signed off.

Source: Media Release

Story first published: Tuesday, September 1, 2020, 23:45 [IST]
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