'Still An Air Of Youth': Simon Doull Calls Kohli 'The Fittest', Says Can Continue Playing Till 45

After parting ways with Test cricket, Virat Kohli has been focusing solely on ODIs. The way he has been playing lately certainly indicates that he hardly has any self-doubt in his mind. Seven consecutive

fifty-plus scores in List A matches, 3 centuries and as many half-centuries in the last seven ODIs and above all, becoming World No. 1 batter after 5 years has only reinforced his authority in India’s ODI dressing room. The speculation around his future has been emphatically put to rest, with even former players continuing to admire him.

Recently, Simon Doul lauded Kohli’s fitness, calling him the fittest guy in the dressing room. Speaking on Star Sports, the former New Zealand pacer praised Kohli’s strokeplay, also admiring his field work, running between the wickets and putting constant pressure on bowlers.

“Some of the shots were just crisp and clean. Beyond that, it is how he manoeuvres the field and how he runs between the wickets. There is still an air of youth about him. Despite his age and experience, he’d probably still be the fittest guy on that side. That is professionalism,” Doull said on Star Sports.

The former cricketer further highlighted Kohli’s fierce competitiveness and his tendency to keep the chase alive even when the contest appears lost.

“The willingness to keep trying to win games, to drag your team back into the contest when they are so far behind, and to run as hard as he does, for his own runs and for his teammates. There’s so much to love about how he’s playing at the moment. May he stick around in international cricket until he’s 44 or 45 years old,” he added.

Kohli has been in a rich vein of form since his return to international cricket in Australia last year. After securing consecutive ducks, Kohli has accumulated 616 runs in nine matches, including three centuries and three fifties.

Kohli now has 54 ODI Hundreds, five more than Sachin Tendulkar, and he has gone past Ricky Ponting’s 12,662 runs to become the leading ODI run-getter at no.3.