NZ vs IND 2022: I admire Virat Kohli, love watching Suryakumar Yadav – Finn Allen

New Zealand opener Finn Allen has revealed that he admires Virat Kohli and loves watching Suryakumar Yadav bat. Allen was a spectator when Yadav scored a brilliant knock of 111 runs in the second T20I against the Kiwis.

However, the youngster didn’t have a great game himself as he was dismissed for a duck by Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the very first over.

Allen has scored 564 runs at a blistering strike rate of 164.13 including a century and two fifties in 24 T20I matches. Meanwhile, the 23-year-old is impressed by the way Virat Kohli got back to form after struggling for a couple of seasons.

“In terms of guys that I admire, obviously the way Virat has gone about,” Allen told Hindustantimes.com. “He had a little bit of a tough time of late, and then to come out the way he has in the last few months and persevered through those challenges is very admirable. Just seeing him overcome that and finish the World Cup as the top run scorer for his country.”

He added, “I really love watching Surya play. He is the No. 1 batter in the world at the moment and for good measure, I think. He is incredible. Some of the shots he plays are out of this world and he is someone I would strive to be like for sure.”

Meanwhile, India has rested players like Mohammed Shami, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and KL Rahul for the New Zealand tour but Allen feels the visitors still have a lot of depth in their squad.

“They are missing a few players and they still seem to come out with a lot of depth and some seriously quality players. It is a slightly different look to what we saw in the World Cup. But their bowling strength is top. They have got three guys in this series who can swing it both ways which is always pretty tough for any batter to combat. The way Arshdeep set the World Cup alight was pretty cool to watch not having to play against. So we are certainly looking forward to that challenge. And then obviously their batting strength. They’ve got X-Factor after X-Factor in their order. They are a pretty exciting side,” Allen said.

Allen went on to reveal that he idolized Kevin Pietersen while growing up. Pietersen was known for his aggressive batting in all three forms of the game.

“I guess the role, where it came from was, I have always idolized Kevin Pietersen growing up and watching him play his brand of cricket. Sort of wanting to take the game on and be really positive came a bit from him,” he said.