Virat Kohli a better Test player despite massive success in ODIs, says coach Raj Kumar Sharma

New Delhi: Virat Kohli's fearless behaviour and confidence has been the key reasons behind his rampant success wearing the Indian jersey. There aren't many bowlers or teams that Virat Kohli is scared of, infact difficult matches tend to bring out the best from Indian Test skipper.

However, there is one person in Kohli's life for whom his attitude takes a 180-degree switch – childhood coach Raj Kumar Sharma.

In an interview with BCCI, Raj Kumar revealed some key incidents from his experience of coaching Virat.

The coach revealed exactly when Kohli started to score big runs including centuries and double centuries.

"Once he got into the Delhi U-15 team, he started scoring heavily. He would score double hundreds. In the U-17, he scored two double hundreds. He had passion and temperament to play long innings. I always felt that he would be a better Test player because of his habit of playing very long innings. Fortunately, he has done very well in ODIs for India, but I still feel he is a better Test player because he has all the required qualities. "

Contrary to coach Sharma's views, Kohli's aggressive nature of play has earned him the reputation arguably the best batsmen around, especially in ODIs and T20Is.

With an average of 52.90 in ODIs and 57.13 in T20Is, the 27-year-old has been a phenomenon for India but is still to replicate same performance in Tests, in which he averages 45.56.

Sharma's contribution in the form of Kohli was recently reward when the former was bestowed with the Dronacharya Award.

Sharma, however, gave all the credit for his achievement to Kohli stating, “I think he is largely responsible for it. I owe it to Virat for his talent, hard work and work ethic. It is because of him that I have got the Dronacharya award.”