‘Incredible’ Virat Kohli Will Break More Records, Thinks Steve Smith

Former Australia captain Steve Smith is excited to play another ICC event at home after the 2015 World Cup. In fact, he hopes that his stint in the IPL with Rajasthan Royals will be important before the ICC T20 World Cup later this year. While speaking to IANS, Smith said India captain Virat Kohli’s gesture to ask fans to support him during the 2019 World Cup was impressive.

“No real specific training, but just playing a lot more T20 cricket and just getting the right tempo I guess for the game is the most important thing for me. I would love to be a part of the World Cup, it’s obviously at home in Australia. I was involved in the ODI World Cup here in 2015 and had the most amazing six-weeks of my cricketing career and loved every minute of it. So yeah would love to be involved in another World Cup at home for sure,” he said.

However, Steve Smith and Virat Kohli are two such batsmen in recent times who have been dominating the world cricket with example. He further spoke about Kohli’s brilliance both as batsman and captain.

“Yeah, he is terrific. His batting numbers just speak for themselves. I think he’s an incredible player in all three formats and I think we will see him break many records. He’s already broken plenty of them and I see him breaking many more over the years. He has got the hunger for runs and doesn’t stop getting them. Hopefully, he can stop getting them against Australia, that’ll be nice,” Smith added.

“As a captain, he’s already made India the number one side in the world in Test cricket. From what I have seen he sets really good standards for them. He is a lot about fitness and is health-conscious and things like that. He’s got the Indian side into a really good place and leads them exceptionally well,” he pointed.

Virat Kohli won the ‘Spirit of Cricket’ award for his gesture in England where he asked fans to support Smith. While Smith was asked about this, he said it was really nice of the Indian captain. “In the World Cup, it was really nice of Virat to do what he did. He did not have to do that and yeah it was a lovely gesture and really appreciate that,” he smiled.

On the other hand, there were talks of returning the captaincy to Smith but for him, Tim Paine is the captain and doing a good job as well. Moreover, he said that he would prefer the five-day Test instead of four-day.

“Yeah, Tim’s done a terrific job. He has led the troops really well. Obviously retaining the Ashes in England in twenty-odd years was an exceptional effort and yeah he has led the team exceptionally well,” he said.

“I am comfortable with five days. I like the challenge of a five-day Test match. Obviously, there has been a lot of talk of the four-day Tests, but my personal opinion is I like five days. I don’t make the decisions obviously of how it all works out but my opinion is five-days Tests is what it is all about,” Steve Smith concluded.