Sri Lanka coach compares Virat Kohli's winning Team India to All Blacks

SportsCafe Desk

BySportsCafe Desk,SportsCafe Editor

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Sri Lanka coach Nic Pothas has praised the Indian team for their incredible 'tour wash' against Sri Lanka and compared them to the rugby world champions, All Blacks. Further, he has also stated that Virat Kohli is a role model for the people and has created an impressive culture in the team.

In the seven-week tour of Sri Lanka, India won nine games back to back as they whitewashed the hosts 3-0 in Tests and 5-0 in ODIs before Wednesday's win in the one off T-20 International at R. Premadasa Stadium. Sri Lanka never even came close to beating India and were thrice bowled out in the five-match series. Since team India put forward such spectacular performances, Sri Lankan Coach Nic Pothas couldn't resist from praising them and compared them to rugby world champions, All Blacks.

"You've got to look at the quality they have in that side. It's a side with immense quality. It's always going to be tough to compete against them, or to try and beat them. They do so many things very well. You see how Virat Kohli runs between the wickets. You see the respect he commands on the field as a leader. He's a role model to people and he pulls people with him. When you look at the way they go about their work and the culture that Virat has created within that team, it's very, very impressive," Pothas was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.

"You look at their team and they are very All-Black-like. There's a lot of respect for the opposition. They are very ruthless in the way they go about their work. Their work-ethic is immense. They are what a lot of teams aspire to be. The most important thing for us is learning from our mistakes, but most importantly, learning from them," the former South African wicketkeeper batsman added.

Pothas also stated that the young Sri Lankan team is going to learn a lot from this experience.

"We've got a lot of good players in this team. It's just a matter of giving them the confidence and the belief that they are very good players and will become world-class players," he said.

The one experienced player, Angelo Mathews resigned from captaincy before the series. In the India series, Mathews played all the games and in 12 innings, he managed to get just three half-centuries, none of them helping them in winning matches.

"It's very tough on Angie. When you're a senior player, obviously the opposition targets you. Then you have that pressure of being a senior player to perform. It's very, very tough. Angie is a world-class cricketer and I don't think you can ever judge any person over a short spate of games. We're all cliched about it, but form is temporary and Angie is a class cricketer. Outside of being a class cricketer, he's a very, very intelligent man. So he'll go back, work on it, we'll have discussions - I have no issues with Angie," said Pothas.

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