Legendary India cricketer Kapil Dev , who was in the city for a book launch, spoke about Virat Kohli’s captaincy, the potential of the Indian team and more.
Excerpts…
India’s approach to having a bowler as coach: In the last 10-15 years the thought process has changed from not wanting to lose to wanting to win.
It takes guts to go in with five bowlers but if Ashwin can bat like he showed in the first Test, that is great. You do need quality all-rounders so that the management can build a great team.
R. Ashwin being considered a competent all-rounder: I think he has shown that already. In such short time he has achieved everything that no other all-rounder has done. He has got 1000 runs and 100 wickets and I think he has done better than Ian Botham in terms of number of matches.
On India’s young fast bowlers: I think compared to the 70s and 80s, we have to say hats off that India is depending on fast bowlers.
The potential of the current side: I think the team needs some time to get mature.
For the last 10-15 years we had a very strong team. So when the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, M.S. Dhoni leave, it is not enough to fill in those gaps. It takes time build a team to replace these players.
The best captain he has played under: I think Sunil Gavaskar was the best captain I played under. He did not have the resources to build a team but tried to do the best and tried to win which was very commendable. He was the best with the limited resources he had.
Virat Kohli as a captain: I think it is too early to assess him. We need to give him a few series before assessing and comparing him. He has shown good potential and has a mind of his own which is very good.
