‘Virat Kohli will continue playing as long as he is sucking air into his lungs,’ says Matthew Hayden

‘Virat Kohli will continue playing as long as he is sucking air into his lungs,’ says Matthew Hayden

Matthew Hayden and Virat Kohli

Matthew Hayden and Virat Kohli
Matthew Hayden and Virat Kohli

Former Australian opening batsman Matthew Hayden believes that Virat Kohli will continue playing with the same intensity till his body allows him to do so. 

“I think he will go on as long as he is sucking air into his lungs and has a heartbeat. One of the features I think of Virat has been his remarkable fitness levels. So for me, I think that is a key element,” Hayden said during a recent episode of the Star Sports show Cricket Connected.

Alongside Hayden, former Indian batsman VVS Laxman observed that Virat Kohli’s current primary goal would be to win the 50-over 2023 World Cup. The 46-year old reckoned that winning the tournament is the biggest accomplishment a cricketer could achieve.

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“I feel his first aim will be the 2023 World Cup because he has the chance to win that as captain. When we talk about Sachin Tendulkar, we talk about the 100 centuries. But if you ask Sachin what has been the memorable moment in his career, he will say the 2011 World Cup that he won at Wankhede,” Laxman stated.

Virat Kohli has got this fabulous conversion rate: Sunil Gavaskar

Virat Kohli and Sunil Gavaskar

Former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar was also present on the show, alongside Hayden and Laxman. Talking about Virat Kohli’s current milestone of fastest to 12,000 ODI runs, the veteran cricketer hailed his consistency. Gavaskar said that Kohli’s outstanding conversion rate from 50 to 100 is another significant reason behind his achievement.

“This is huge, this is absolutely huge. As you just said, the gap was 58 innings. It just tells you the consistency of Virat Kohli. And when you have a look at the record, he has played 251 matches, in which he has got 60 half-centuries and 43 hundreds. That means 103 times in his 251 matches for India, he has gone past the fifty mark,” said Sunil Gavaskar.

“That is the reason he has been able to get to this figure quicker than anybody else because he has got this fabulous conversion rate where once he gets to a fifty, he gets to a hundred,” he added.

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