Former Australia skipper Ian Chappell on Sunday (May 17) hailed Virat Kohli as the best batsman among the current generation of players.
Asked to pick among Australia’s Steve Smith, New Zealand’s Kane Williamson, England’s Joe Root and Kohli, Chappell chose the Indian skipper, citing his ‘unbelievable record across the three formats.’
“Of that group, Kohli is the best in all three forms. That’s unquestionable. His record in all three forms is quite unbelievable, particularly his record in the shorter forms,” the 76-year-old said during a chat on The RK Show on YouTube.
Chappell’s opinion is justified as well given the record Kohli boasts in all formats. The Indian captain has already aggregated 43 one-day international hundreds – only behind Sachin Tendulkar (49).
He averages a mind-boggling 59.33 in the 50-over format from 248 matches with 11,867 runs while his T20I average reads 50.80 in 82 games with 2794 runs. Virat has also proved his mettle in Test cricket, scoring 7240 runs at an impressive average of 53.62 from 86 matches including 27 tons.
Chappell then drew parallels between Virat and the legendary Sir Vivian Richards when it comes to playing normal shots and still dominating the batting chart.
“Having listened to Kohli talk about batting, he makes a lot of sense. I like his approach to batting. We did an interview with him last time India were in Australia, and one of the things he talked about was why he didn’t play the fancy shots, the innovative shots of particularly T20 cricket.
“He said he didn’t want those to creep in his batting in the longer form of the game. The best short-form player in the time I played was Viv Richards, and he just played normal cricket shots but he placed the ball so well he was able to score at a very fast rate. And Kohli’s the same. He plays traditional cricket shots, and he plays them really well,” revealed Chappell.
Another feature of Virat Kohli’s batting is his running between the wickets and Chappell acknowledged it.
“The other thing that stands out about Kohli is his fitness and running between the wickets. The way he pushes himself, he’s incredibly fit. Some of his performances are quite amazing,” the Australian said.
Kohli has also left an impression on Ian Chappell as a captain.
“The one thing that stands out to me is that Kohli is the one (captain) that doesn’t fear defeat. He’s prepared to lose a game in trying to win it. You’ve got to be that way as a captain in my opinion. I like that approach.
“I thought when he took over the captaincy that he was so emotional, it might affect his captaincy adversely but I think he has reined that in a little bit. He has made that work for him in his captaincy rather than work against him. He’s a pretty smart cricketer,” Chappell opined.
(Inputs from Firstpost)
