“Kohli Is Like A Diamond”: When Sourav Ganguly Compared Virat Kohli To Sunil Gavaskar And Sachin Tendulkar

The relationship between legendary Indian captains Sourav Ganguly and Virat Kohli was tarnished since the latter’s stepping down as T20I captain in 2021. BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) president back then, Ganguly had failed to handle Kohli’s ODI demotion in an effective manner. While Kohli had later highlighted a communication gap between him and the board, Ganguly had spoken of the otherwise.

However, despite all the issues, Ganguly has always been an admirer of Kohli’s batting abilities. He once compared him to generational talents like Sachin Tendulkar and Sunil Gavaskar. Even during the recently concluded ICC World Test Championship 2023 final, Ganguly had said that the Indian team played a brilliant brand of Test cricket under Kohli.

While a handshake controversy between the two during Indian Premier League 2023 grabbed a lot of headlines at first, Ganguly and Kohli met each other and shook hands positively during the reverse league fixture between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi Capitals this season.

When Sourav Ganguly Compared Virat Kohli To Sunil Gavaskar And Sachin Tendulkar

As mentioned above, Ganguly’s generous appreciation of Kohli had once seen him comparing the 34-year old player to Gavaskar and Tendulkar for domination in various generations of Indian cricket. It all had happened after Kohli’s 36th ODI century against West Indies in Guwahati in the first of a five-match series in 2018.

Chasing a 323-run target, Kohli and his then deputy Rohit Sharma had shared a match-winning 246-run second-wicket partnership to seal the chase in just 42.1 overs. Sharma scored 152* (117), whereas Kohli scored 140 (107). Kohli was adjudged the Player of the Match for his supreme touch from the word go. Sharma, meanwhile, had played an anchor role early on before being at his very best.

After the game, Ganguly expressed his views on the show ‘Cricket Ki Baat’ on India TV. He had a lot of praise for both the Indian batters where he referred to Kohli as a “Diamond” of the Indian team. Getting compared to players like Gavaskar and Tendulkar is itself a big achievement.

“Virat Kohli is a great player. Anything is possible for him. In 80s we had [Sunil] Gavaskar, then Sachin [Tendulkar] came and now we have Virat Kohli. With his impressive strokeplay, he also inspires other batsmen. Kohli is like a diamond in the team. He makes batting look so easy when he comes at the crease.”

Comparing Sourav Ganguly and Virat Kohli’s Captaincy Record

In terms of captaincy stats, Kohli is way ahead of Ganguly. Notwithstanding Ganguly being counted among the best Indian captains, he was outperformed by both Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Kohli.

Kohli led India in 213 games across formats, and the team managed to win 135 of them. The win percentage under Kohli was 63.38%. Talking of Ganguly, he had led India in a total of 196 international matches, where he won 97 and lost 79. India’s win percentage under Ganguly was 49.48%.

Under Kohli, India reached the final of ICC Champions Trophy 2017 and ICC World Test Championship 2019-2021. Ganguly, on the contrary, had led India to the final of ICC Cricket World Cup 2003 after they were the joint-winners of ICC Champions Trophy 2002.