Bangladesh ODI captain Mashrafe bin Mortaza said he would pick Virat Kohli for his side if he had the opportunity, gaencies reports.
The first official media session of the 2019 World Cup titled “Captains’ press conference” became interesting when one question arose from the audience, asking “which player would you select from the opposition teams for this World Cup?”
Among the usual questions such as who are favorites, what will be the par score and so forth garnered the attention of the whole audience as everyone seemed to be interested about the answers from the participating captains.
Host Mark Chapman asked the question to home captain Eoin Morgan first, and the English skipper tactically said, in a diplomatic manner, “I am happy with all of my players" with a smile in his face.
The media session started with captain of the host nation Eoin Morgan, who said the tournament will be a competitive one as there are quite a few contenders
However, the English skipper said he would love to have Australian great Ricky Ponting as a coach.
The crowd smiled and so did the other captains.
The next captain to answer the question was Indian skipper Kohli, who said he would love to have South African AB de Villiers, but since AB is retired now, he chose his compatriot Faf du Plessis and admitted it would have been fun to bat with him.
Then came the turn of Pakistan captain Sarfaraz Ahmed and he promptly answered “Jos Buttler of England”.
The English wicketkeeper-batsman is in great form and scored a match-winning century against Sarfaraz’s side in Southampton on May 11.
West Indies skipper Jason Holder also eschewed the question like Morgan by saying he is content with the players of his side.
The next was Afghanistan skipper Gulbadin Naib and he also answered diplomatically as “any player on his given day”.
After that, the question came to Tigers’ skipper Mashrafe and he answered the question as "I will take Kohli”.
After hearing this, Virat made a nice gesture of thumbs up to Mashrafe and the charismatic skipper responded with a wry smile. Australia skipper Aaron Finch informed that he would love to have South African pacer Kagiso Rabada as the fast bowler has the ability to bowl great spells.
Next was South Africa skipper Faf as he too, preferred Kohli or a fast bowler among the likes of Jasprit Bumrah or Pat Cummins.
Sri Lanka skipper Dimuth Karunaratne opted for England all-rounder Ben Stokes as he believes he can be a game changer at any moment of the game
The last one to answer was New Zealand captain Kane Williamson and the Kiwi skipper preferred a fast bowler as he believed bowlers will need to play a crucial part in order to win the trophy.
