Mumbai: Former England skipper Mike Brearly named Virat Kohli as one of his three favourite captains but at the same time spoke about the need to maintain checks and balances for skippers.
Brearly mentioned the names of Ray Illingworth, Ian Chappell and Virat Kohli when asked to pick his three all-time favourite captains, at a book launch event in Mumbai.
“I haven’t been close enough to (Virat) Kohli but I admire him enormously, he has given the team pride and aggression. He is always attentive, keen eyed, he is a wonderful batsman and he is shrewd,” said Brearly, who has captained England in 31 of his 39 Test matches.
Being a psychoanalyst himself, Brearly analysed the evaluation of Kohli made by former member of the Committee of Administrators (CoA) where had described the 29-year-old as being all-powerful.
Brearly agreed to the fact that there should be a system of checks and balances.
“Yes, the captain is the most powerful member of the team. There’s balance and he must not be the only one.
“A leader of a country should be kept in check. He needs to have people he listens to and people who tells him where he’s getting things wrong. Kennedy used to have a group of people who’s job was to criticise his policies, that seems to be very healthy,” he added.
When asked about India being ready for the tour of England later this year, Brearly felt that a touring team always finds it hard to adjust because of the wickets being prepared to suit the strengths of the home side.
“India have got a very good team. I was impressed with how they stuck at it in the last innings in Johannesburg in the field and their batting on difficult pitches was against good quality bowling,” he said.
Kohli has never fielded the same XI in consecutive Test matches and Brearly opined that this an effect of T20 cricket.
“I find it extraordinary, and probably because it is unsettling to the team when you have too many changes. May be what is come in with T20 cricket is greater openness to variability,” he said.
“He’s now scoring runs everywhere. He was up against top quality bowlers in conditions that suited them,” added the 75-year-old.