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Leaders are allowed to develop and grow: Sourav Ganguly on Virat Kohli’s leadership abilities

Indian skipper Virat Kohli was heavily criticised by former cricketers and cricket experts because of his decisions in the ongoing three-match Test series in South Africa.

Leaders are allowed to develop and grow: Sourav Ganguly on Virat Kohli’s leadership abilities

Virat Kohli (R) with Sourav Ganguly (PHOTO: Facebook)

Indian skipper Virat Kohli was heavily criticised by former cricketers and cricket experts because of his decisions in the ongoing three-match Test series in South Africa.

From former South African skipper Graeme Smith to veteran explosive Indian opener Virender Sehwag, everyone questioned him and his ability to lead the team. After Kohli dropped Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the second Test, Sehwag even said that he should drop himself from the team for England tour if he failed with the bat.

However, one of India’s most successful captains in the overseas tour, Sourav Ganguly has backed Kohli, saying he would get better as captain.

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While writing in his column for TOI, Ganguly said, “There is lot of talk going around about Virat Kohli’s leadership qualities. It is important to be patient as it is his first big overseas tour.”

Sourav Ganguly had played 311 One-day Internationals and 113 Tests for India.

“Nobody really is a born leader and it is important that leaders are allowed to develop and grow. I am convinced Kohli will keep getting better at this. It is very important that as a leader you keep performing – that is the biggest challenge and this is where Kolhi has done remarkably well,” the former Indian skipper added.

“The hype is obviously about the pitch, about what India will get to play on. The groundsman has spoken about a green pitch but till a ball is bowled, you can never say what the track will be like exactly. There is also word that India will play five fast bowlers but they will have to be very careful because spin will be useful in a five-day game and variation is also important in a longer format,” wrote Ganguly.

In the on-going three-match Test series, Faf du Plessis’ side had taken the unassailable lead of 2-0. Learning from his mistakes in the first two Tests, Virat Kohli had included ‘dependable’ Ajinkya Rahane in the third Test and excluded Rohit Sharma of the squad.

Earlier, after winning the toss Virat Kohli opted to bat and till the filing of this story, the visitors had lost two wickets for 45 runs. Cheteshwar Pujara (5) and Virat Kohli (24) are at the crease.

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