Veteran India player Dinesh Karthik shared his thoughts on the Fab-four debate that involves India's star batter Virat Kohli, England's Joe Root, Australia's Steve Smith, and New Zealand's Kane Williamson.
These four batters ruled the cricketing world after making their debuts almost at the same time and thanks to their record in the present time, all four are considered to be modern era greats.
However, Karthik pointed out that Virat Kohli played regularly in all three formats which has had an impact on his body, while, Smith and Root, particularly have played more ODIs and Tests.
To be noted here, Virat Kohli has played 110 Tests, 274 ODIs, and 115 T20Is, while Smith has 100 Tests, 142 ODIs, and 63 T20Is to his name. Kane Williamson has played 94 Tests, 161 ODIs, and 87 T20Is, while Joe Root has turned out for England in 133 Tests, 158 ODIs, and only 32 T20Is.
"Virat Kohli plays all three formats, and that is going to take a toll on his body. Whereas Joe Root and Steve Smith just play the two formats a lot more, ODIs and Test cricket. Both Australia and England sometimes end up playing more Test cricket than India, so that gives them the best chance of ending up with a lot more hundreds.
But knowing the man and the kind of discipline that he is showing across the board in various countries, he could easily end up as the highest Test hundred-run-getter in the world, if not the fab-four," Karthik told Cricbuzz.
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Virat Kohli scored his 29th Test century in the ongoing second Test against West Indies in Trinidad, his first overseas ton in the format since December 2018. This was also century number 76 for Kohli in international cricket.
"The big story of the day, unsurprisingly, is Virat Kohli, and 29 hundreds. Test cricket and Virat Kohli have been a love story for a long time. They have got along well over some time. The last two years haven't been his best years," Karthik added.
Kohli’s 46 ODI hundreds are just 3 behind Tendulkar’s record of 49 tons.
