Kallis Believes Kohli Has Potential

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The South African all rounder and one of the greatest players of all time, Jacques Kallis, believes that Virat Kohli has got a lot of talent, but, it’s not going to be that easy for him to break Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 100 hundreds in international cricket.

Kohli has been playing international cricket only for about 5-6 years and he has already got 25 hundreds (19 in ODIs and 6 in tests) under his belt. He can easily play for another 10-12 years and the rate at which he has been scoring centuries in the recent times; it doesn’t seem that difficult for him to go past Tendulkar’s tally.

But, according to Kallis, it would be a challenge for Virat to maintain this sort of consistency right through his career.

In one of his interviews recently, when Kallis was asked if Virat is talented enough to leave Tendulkar behind as far as scoring hundreds is concerned, he said, “Look, Virat is blessed with a lot of talent; there is no doubt about that. But, to go past Tendulkar will be one hell of a task for him and I don’t think we should even start the comparisons so early. Virat is a young lad who is going pretty well and he should just be left on his own. These types of comparisons might distract him.”

Kallis announced his retirement from test match cricket after the series against India last year. When asked how his life has been post retirement, he said, “Well, I am still an active player. I haven’t fully retired. So, it’s a bit difficult for me to answer this question, but, yes, I haven’t been playing regularly and I miss that to be honest.”

Kallis still plays ODIs and T20s for South Africa.

DRAVID: NEED STRIKE BOWLER

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Rahul Dravid believes that the main reason behind India’s recent defeats overseas is that they don’t have a genuine strike bowler towards whom the captain can turn every time he is in desperate need of a wicket.

This observation made by Dravid seems to be bang on. The performance of Indian batting so far on the tour of New Zealand or even on the previous tour of South Africa for that matter cannot be termed as poor. The batsmen have put their hands up and have given their 100% more often than not, but, it’s the bowlers who have let the skipper MS Dhoni down.

In the first test match against New Zealand which was played in Auckland, India had won the toss and had put the hosts in under perfect bowling conditions.

They could easily have bowled the Kiwis out cheaply on the first day there, but, no, it wasn’t to be. They bowled plenty of bad balls and let New Zealand score more than enough runs.

It wasn’t the story in only that Auckland test match. In each and every match that India has played overseas this season, the story has been the same.

The Indians have to go on a couple of very tough tours this year and then, they will have to defend their World Cup crown next year. So, they badly need to find good bowlers especially the fast bowlers.

As far as the spin department is concerned, people like Ashwin and Jadeja are still doing reasonably well, but, the pace battery doesn’t look lethal at all and that’s why on green tracks, India is losing games so frequently.

The Indian selectors are aware of this issue, but, their problem is that there are not too many talented fast bowlers coming through the ranks in the country. So, they don’t have any option really apart from persisting with those who are currently in the team.