IPL 2018: AB de Villiers hails Virat Kohli as the best player in the world

"Virat deserves everything that's coming his way" says de Villiers.

Kohli and de Villiers mutually admire each other | AFP

Proteas batting maverick AB de Villiers on Wednesday (April 18) termed his Royal Challengers Bangalore teammate Virat Kohli as the best player in the world at the moment. Sharing the RCB dressing room with Kohli since 2011, de Villiers has seen the evolvement of his current IPL skipper from the very close quarters and he is not at all surprised by his accomplishment in just a decade-long international career.

"Virat deserves everything that's coming his way. I have seen him work very hard on his game. From the time Mark Boucher (another South African who played for RCB) told me there is a special talent coming your way, I was not surprised to be honest,” de Villiers quoted as saying by India Today.

"He has always been the guy who has grit between the heath, very passionate, very driven, have seen him do his thing for years now. There's no doubt in my mind he is the best player in the world at the moment and will be for quite a few the years to come. Very proud of the way he goes about his business and the way he has evolved as the best player in the world," he added.

AB de Villiers’ statement is totally justified given the fact that Virat is a monster when it comes to batsmanship across all formats. The Indian captain is the only batsman in contemporary cricket to average more than 50 in Tests, ODIs and T20Is. While Kohli has 21 Test tons to his name, he holds a record 35 ODi centuries to his name.

On Tuesday (April 17), Kohli put on a show against the Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium. He scored a blistering 62-ball 92* albeit on a losing cause. During his unbeaten knock, Kohli broke quite a few records. He went past Suresh Raina’s tally of 4558 IPL runs to become the leading run-scorer in the cash-rich event. Kohli now boasts of 4619 runs in IPL after 153 matches.

Moreover, the RCB captain also earned the ‘Orange Cap’ by becoming the highest run-getter for this season. Virat is currently leading the runs tally with 201 runs to his name in 4 innings.

 
 

By Salman Anjum - 18 Apr, 2018

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