Legendary Sir Vivian Richards has showered praise on Virat Kohli for his fighting spirit, energy, and passion in the ongoing Champions Trophy. Kohli was under the pump when he trudged to 22 runs off 38 balls in the opening clash of the eight-team tournament against Bangladesh.

However, Kohli scored a match-winning knock of 100 runs off 111 balls in the much-anticipated clash against Pakistan at Dubai. India was chasing 242 runs and Kohli was able to hit the ground running as he looked at his previous best after a long time.

Kohli scored his 51st ODI century and also became the fastest to 14000 ODI runs, getting to the milestone in 287 innings, breaking Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 350 innings.

Sir Viv Richards said on India Today, “I think he answers all of us really. I guess he had to work up before these ODIs. He wasn’t doing that well, and then he came back in magnificent form. So that is a true testament to the character that we’re speaking about, and this is why I put him in the category of being great and legendary.”

“It’s not all the time that you get players who – when they are down, can come back. But it’s just his fighting spirit, the energy, the passion to do well, that’s why I put them up there with the very best. He’s able to go through bad times and then to all the bad times, they become good.”

Kohli has been a giant in ODI cricket and he proved his mettle against the arch-rivals. The talisman has scored 651 runs in 15 matches at an average of 93 in the Champions Trophy and another 51 runs will help him leapfrog Shikhar Dhawan’s tally of 701 runs, which is the most for India. Chris Gayle is the highest run-getter in the tournament’s history with 791 runs in 17 matches.