Former Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara has heaped praise on Virat Kohli, saying that the Indian captain is capable of becoming one of the greatest cricketers ever.

Recently, Kohli became the first Indian as well as the first Asian captain to win a Test series Down Under. He also created history by becoming the first player to clinch the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for ICC Cricketer of the Year, the ICC Men’s Test Player of the Year and the ICC ODI Player of the Year awards in the same year.

Virat sealed all three major ICC awards following an extraordinary 2018 in which he scored 1,322 Test runs at an average of 55.08 in 13 matches with five tons and 1202 ODI runs at an astonishing average of 133.55 in 14 games including six centuries. The Indian skipper also piled up 211 runs in 10 T20Is during the last calendar year. Moreover, he was also named the captain of ICC’s Test and ODI team of the year.

“Everything about Virat’s game stands out. I think he is head and shoulders above anyone else in world cricket today. And I think going forward, he will be one of the greatest ever cricketers, if not the greatest ever,” Sangakkara told India Today.

The Lankan legend also hailed Kohli for reading situations to perfection.

“He has this incredible knack of scoring runs and has a very very solid method that he believes in and is very repeatable and if you see the tempo which he bats with, it hardly changes. He does read the situation very well. He is a very passionate guy, you see that in his expressions on the field so I think it’s not just one aspect, it’s the overall aspect of both the person and how he has sorted his batting and his attitude,” he added.

As far as Virat’s overall batting credentials are concerned – he has amassed 6613 runs in 77 Tests with 25 centuries while his ODI runs tally read 10533 from 222 matches including 39 tons. The Indian captain averages nearly 50 in the shortest format as well, with 2167 runs from 65 T20Is to his name.