Former British Prime Minister David Cameron has hailed Indian cricket star Virat Kohli as an “extraordinary leader” at the NDTV World Summit. Cameron, a self-proclaimed cricket enthusiast, was asked to name his favorite Indian cricketer and heaped praise on both Rahul Dravid and Kohli.
Cameron recalled watching legendary spinner Bishan Singh Bedi and witnessing Dravid’s brilliant century in England. He then highlighted Kohli’s exceptional leadership qualities, stating that he had witnessed “incredible captaincy and inspiration” from the Indian batter on the field.
“I think in Virat Kohli, you had an extraordinary leader. Sometimes, you can see, as we have done with Ben Stokes as our captain, just incredible captaincy on the field and inspiration. I think you had that with Virat Kohli,” Cameron said.
Cameron also expressed his admiration for the upcoming generation of British-Indian cricketers, predicting that they would soon challenge India and potentially emerge victorious.
Kohli recently joined an elite group of cricketers by scoring his 9,000th run in Test matches during the first Test against New Zealand in Bengaluru. Batting at No. 3, Kohli turned the tables after being dismissed for a duck in the first innings.
Alongside Sarfaraz Khan, Kohli forged a crucial partnership of 136 runs that revived India’s innings. He reached his half-century off 70 balls and carefully accumulated the additional three runs needed to reach the milestone.
Kohli became the 18th player to score 9,000 runs in Test cricket and joined Joe Root and Steve Smith as the only active players in this exclusive club. He also became the fourth Indian to achieve this feat, following in the footsteps of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, and Sunil Gavaskar.
