India vs Australia: Steve Waugh Compares Virat Kohli To Sachin Tendulkar And Brian Lara, Calls Him A "Great Player"

Virat Kohli was recently in the spotlight for the wrong reason, precisely for asking a cricket lover -- who expressed his fondness towards Australian and English batsmen -- to "leave India". But now here's some praise being showered on the Indian captain by Australian veteran Steve Waugh, who said "Kohli is like Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara". In an interview with ESPN Cricinfo, he said, "He is a great player and he loves these big moments. He is like Tendulkar and Lara. They wait for these and that's where they want to show their best. He will be the dangerman straightaway but they have some pretty good batsmen."

Team India coach Ravi Shastri recently said that the current Virat Kohli-led team is "the best Indian side in the last 15 years." But seems Waugh and Shastri aren't really on the same page. Speaking in reference to Shastri's comments, Waugh said he is "not sure" if the current Virat Kohli-led team is any better than some of the Indian sides that he has played against during his days.

"Look I have played against some great Indian sides and I am not sure that the current side is better than the ones we played against," he said. He understood that Shastri wanted to boost the morale of his team but he felt that sweeping comments could have been avoided.

"I am not really sure but probably not a great thing to say as it puts extra pressure on the team. Once they start losing, they will get a lot of criticism for that. Look, it's good that Ravi Shastri believes in his side but comments like these could be kept to himself," he added.

The former skipper known for his mental disintegration tactic feels that Australia despite recent problems would be hard to beat in their own den.

"Australia will be hard to beat in Australia. We have a bowling attack as good as any team in world cricket and we can take wickets. It's our batting if we score 350 runs in first innings, I think we will be very hard to beat. And someone will always come and do well and that's the nature of the sport. I am still pretty confident that we can win in Australia but it's going to be a close series though," Waugh said about the Test series starting December 6.

Speaking about India's chances Down Under, he said, "Actually, India have quite a rounded team and they will see this as a significant chance. They would have prepared for this tour for a long time. I think it is going to be really close series," he added.

(With PTI inputs)

Topics mentioned in this article

India Cricket Team Australia Cricket Team Sachin Tendulkar Virat Kohli Australia vs India 2018/19 Steve Waugh Cricket