India vs England | Virat Kohli comes closest to Sachin Tendulkar, reckons Saqlain Mushtaq

Two games into the Test series against England, India found themselves trailing the home team by a margin of 2-0. The second loss at Lord’s was the biggest loss that the Indian team endured since 29-year old Virat Kohli took the reins of the Test team from MS Dhoni. With everything against them heading into the crucial third Test at Trent Bridge, Ravi Shastri’s boys produced one of the most stunning displays of Test cricket the Indian team has performed on foreign soil.

“As a batsman, Sachin was a very big player. I cannot compare (two eras) but today Virat is the only one who comes close. We were talking amongst the English support staff about how he played at Trent Bridge. In this third Test alone, Jimmy Anderson beat his outside edge 40 times, and yet he played the next ball with so much confidence. Virat plays ball by ball, run by run and session by session. He has a tremendous hunger for runs and victory. When you have someone hungry like that, he can do anything to satisfy his hunger.

Mushtaq, who represented Pakistan in 49 Tests, was also full of praise for the present batch of Indian pace bowlers who have caused South African and English batsmen a lot of trouble in the last six Test matches that India played.

“If you look at the statistics from the first three Tests, India’s pacers have bowled quicker than English pacers. When did that last happen? The way they walk, and present themselves, the way they bowl fast and move the ball, you look at the Indian pacers and think that they are proper fast bowlers.