Former Pakistani Skipper further said Virat Kohli is a fighter and that’s why everybody likes him
by Suman Gupta
New Delhi, July – On MS Dhoni’s birthday eve, Waqar Younis lauds Dhoni as greatest Captain while also thanking frontline healthcare staff and doctors including his wife Dr. Faryal Waqar Younis. Pakistani speedster Waqar Younis heaped lavish praise on former Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and revealed to fans on GloFans’ chat show ‘Q20’ that Dhoni has indeed done a tremendous job in carrying forward the momentum of the team that started during the era of Sourav Ganguly.
Speaking exclusively to GloFans during ‘Q20’, Waqar Younis said, “Sourav Ganguly was the one who started that journey of improvement for Indian cricket and M.S. Dhoni took that journey ahead. He is a World Cup champion and has won two World Cups. I think he has done wonderfully well for himself, for his country and of course, for his family,
Sourav, who is now the President of the BCCI is regarded as the best captain that Indian cricket has ever produced and it was his captaincy that inculcated a strong winning mentality in the team and the Men in Blue became a force to reckon with outside the country as well.
While agreeing to Sourav’s immense contribution to Indian cricket in a freewheeling chat with fans on GloFans’ official twitter handle, Waqar also confessed that Dhoni as a leader had changed the face of Indian cricket forever and fulfilled his responsibility as a captain par excellence.
“What a cricketer M.S. Dhoni is. The way he led the team, it is difficult to express it in words. He is a very good and big leader who understands things. He is a wonderful human being and coming from a small village and the heights he has achieved plus leading such a big country and team is indeed praiseworthy” Waqar further added.
Dhoni who is currently on a sabbatical from international cricket will lead the Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League once again this year. The Jharkhand based wicketkeeper batsman will turn 39 on July 7th.
Dhoni has now passed on the baton to Virat Kohli who according to Waqar is another fierce competitor of the game and is doing a great job both as a captain and player and his determination when it comes to being fit is the main attribute that sets him apart from his contemporaries.
“Virat Kohli has evolved the game and all the formats of the modern-day cricket including T20 Cricket, one day suits him a lot and he is brilliant at test matches. But the biggest difference he brought to Cricket that is followed and watched worldwide is his fitness. He has set a bar of fitness worldwide, for players, I think it is hard to beat. I think for that reason also, you like everything about Virat Kohli. He is fit, he is always in your face, he wants to prove you that he is the best, he is a fighter, so that is why, we all like him,” Waqar said responding to fans question on ‘Q20’.
Answering to another fan question during GloFans ‘Q20’ chat show regarding Pakistan’s woeful record against India in the World Cups, Waqar said, “Over the last few World Cups, Pakistan have not won against India. We did well in other formats, we did well in Test matches, but when it comes to World Cups and ODI Cricket, India has always had an upper hand on us. And they deserve it. I think they played better cricket than us,” he commented.
“I remember in Bangalore and back in I think that was in Pretoria in 2003. I remember most of them and I think I have played a couple of them. So they were a very good side and I think on that particular day they just came out with a very positive frame of mind, they played better cricket and played smartly. We did not play smartly; we had games in our hands. If you look at the World Cup in 2011 and then of course back in ’96 also we had the game in our hand, but it is just, we… we just threw it away. It is hard to pinpoint why we do that, maybe, it’s just the pressure of the World Cup now because it happens so many times, it is just the psychological pressure on us that we just cannot really win against them but yeah, it’s very-very difficult to pinpoint on one thing,” Waqar concluded.
Waqar Younis is the second cricketing legend who spoke to fans on the official Twitter platform @GloFansOfficial after David Gower. David Gower interacted with fans at length and touched upon many interesting topics including Sourav Ganguly’s role as BCCI president, R Ashwin’s mankading incident and Kolkata Knight Riders’ co-owner Shahrukh Khan.
