Nic Pothas draws comparison between Team India and All Blacks

Sri Lanka coach Nic Pothas has compared Indian team with All Blacks after the visitors won the only T20I against them by 7 wickets. All Blacks are nothing but a dominant New Zealand National Rugby Union team, the world champions. India completed a whitewash of the hosts across all formats and made it 9-0 on the tour. Men in Blue also became the first visiting team to win all the matches on the tour.

The team from island nation never threatened India in any of the games as they lost the first two Tests inside four days and the last Test match inside 3 days. In the ODI series as well, they were bowled out thrice in 5 games and in the remaining 2 games they did not put enough runs on the board. Sri Lanka looked in control of the game in patches in the only T20I on Wednesday but failed to capitalize.

Kohli – a role model to people

Nic Pothas was all praise for their opposition after they lost the T20 match comprehensively. He believed that Virat is leading the side very well and commands the respect of his team on the field. He also said that there is a lot of quality in the team and it will always be tough to compete against them.

“You’ve got to look at the quality they have on 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,” revealed Nic Pothas according to Cricbuzz.

He also compared the Indian team with All Blacks, the Rugby champions. He was of the opinion that they had all the traits in them like the aforementioned rugby team. “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,” added the South African

Will make a comeback: Pothas

The coach was also confident about his team making a resounding comeback in all the formats. “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,” further augmented the newly appointed Sri Lankan coach.

Nic Pothas was all praise for the former Sri Lankan captain Angelo Mathews. He tagged him as a class cricketer and cleared the air surrounding him having issues with the former captain. “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,” claimed Pothas.

“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 crickete, 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,” concluded the 43-year old.