India vs Australia | Mitchell Starc lavishes praise on Virat Kohli’s captaincy ability

12/24/2018

Mitchell Starc, who played under Virat Kohli while representing Royal Challengers Bangalore, has called the Indian skipper a "fantastic captain". Starc has also joined the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Mitchell Johnson in questioning ICC’s decision to award the Perth pitch an ‘average’ rating.

The relation between Virat Kohli and Mitchell Starc has never been bad, but the same can’t be said about the Indian skipper’s relationship with other Aussie players. While in the 2014 series, Kohli said he didn’t have any reason to respect Mitchell Johnson after the last year’s Border-Gavaskar Trophy was remembered for all the wrong reasons and Kohli announced that his opinion to be friends with the Australians had been changed.

However, few players like Mitchell Starc and David Warner have been good friends with Kohli, and now, the former came out to state that he liked the way Kohli has been leading the Indian team. Having previously played under the Indian skipper in the IPL, Starc stated that Kohli was a "fantastic captain”, but a lot would depend on the way India are playing the series.

“I’ve played a couple of IPLs with Virat and he’s been fantastic to play under, as a captain. Obviously, he’s a fantastic player. The way India play this series and go about their cricket, it’s up to them,” Starc told AFP.

The surface for the second Test started out with a tinge of green on it and had cracks appearing as the match went on. Although a few deliveries awkwardly hit the batsmen, some of the former greats of the game like Sachin Tendulkar, Mitchell Johnson, and Michael Vaughan have praised the surface for offering up a match that tested both bowlers and batsmen.

However, ICC match referee Ranjan Madugalle marked the pitch as ‘average’, the lowest passing mark for a surface. While that decision was criticised by many, Mitchell Starc became the latest to question the decision of the ICC.

“You had a fantastic Test match over five days, a fantastic battle between ball and bat which is what you want. I think that was a bit harsh, I’d say, and the fact it was such an exciting Test match that’s what you want to promote. You want to see wickets like that in the future,” he was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.

“For example, playing in MCG last year was pretty docile and the pitch didn’t do anything. You want a contest between bat and ball so that’s going to keep Test cricket alive and get people into the game like in Perth. It was a fantastic battle there and I thought it was a great pitch,” Starc added to agencies.

“Cracks did play a part but that’s what happens when a wicket is wearing on days four and five. Cricket is turning out to be a batters’ game if you keep making flat wickets always. You want an exciting contest between bat and ball. When the ball is flying around and batsmen have to play, that’s the game. Marcus Harris batted on after being hit and batsmen from both sides got hit on shoulders but carried on. It’s good aggressive cricket and it brings people to the game.”

The third day will be starting on Boxing day on December 26 in Melbourne.