A day after his successor Michael Clarke slammed the Australian media for "tarnishing" India skipper Virat Kohli's image, former Australia captain Steve Waugh on Thursday went one step ahead incomplimenting the Indian, saying he sees a bit of Ricky Ponting and himself in the way Kohli goes about his business.
"There's probably elements of Ricky (Ponting) and myself in his captaincy, but having said that he's his own man," Waugh said.
"He's the new face of India, he can get in your face, he's aggressive, he's positive, and he leads in a certain way so the other guys know how he wants the team to play."
"(But also) I'm glad he's got a bit of me in his captaincy," he added.
Steve Waugh, the most successful captain in Test history with a winning percentage of 71.92, is also impressed with Kohli's body language and the way the 28-year-old encourages his team-mates.
"He's obviously a very aggressive captain, he encourages a lot of talk amongst his troops and he's got positive body language and they're all the traits that I liked in my sides," he said.He thenproceeded to compare Kohli's on-field conduct to Ponting saying that both take charge and step up to
lead by example when the situation demands.
"Ricky Ponting was a similar type of player; he'd roll his sleeves up, get stuck in, he'd go into bat-pad if he needed to and led by example. And
Virat Kohli certainly does that," he said.
Meanwhile, Australian cricket legend Adam Gilchrist has called Virat Kohli a great leader and said it is time for both the countries to put an end to the 'cheatgate' controversy before it turns
into infamous 2008 'monkeygate' episode.
Kohli is yet to fire in the ongoing series against Australia and Gilchrist said the Indian skipper is due for
big runs in the fourth and final Test in Dharamsala, starting on Saturday.
"Kohli is a great leader. He drags his team and his nation with him," Gilchirst said. "I m fearful Virat Kohli is due for a lot of runs (in Dharamsala)," he said.
"It has been an exceptional series. (But) both the teams may sit back in the end and think they may have said somethings differently.
"But we can all move on and I'm glad that it has not escalated to the really nasty scenario in 2008 that dragged on and on," he said.
Gilchrist said controversies are integral part of India-Australia cricket rivalry."Everyone was frustrated and that is a part of history between the two teams," the legendary wicket-keeper batsman said.
"At the end of the day there is a lot of respect between the two teams because they fear each other as opponents. Both the teams are fine competitors."