As India begin their West Indies tour with a convincing win over the hosts, much attention has been given to captain Virat Kohli who underlined his supreme talent with a magnificent first Test double century.
With Kohli in sparkling form across all forms of the game in 2016, many are asking whether the India batsman can now be considered the best batsman anywhere in the world at the current time.
Sport360’s Joy Chakravarty and Stuart Appleby debate.
Virat Kohli is the best batsman in the world right now, and by the time he ends his career – if he manages to remain injury-free – the highly-motivated Indian Test captain will be counted among the finest in the history of the sport.
The biggest reason for my faith in Kohli is that he seems to have the ability to raise the bar for himself every time he achieves something – and that character trait is not very commonly found.
When he started his career, Kohli’s propensity to be technically correct led many to believe he would be a misfit in the Twenty20s. But right now, he is ranked No. 1 by the ICC in the shortest format. He was the highest scorer in the In the IPL this year, and also in the Super 10 stage of the ICC World T20 Cup.
It’s not just his batting he has improved every year. More importantly, he also recognised the massive role of physical fitness in the modern game, and is perhaps among the fittest cricketers in the world right now.
And when critics started pointing out that in pursuit of success in the limited overs game, his Test record was suffering, came the brilliant 200 in the first innings in Antigua.
When ur on a heavy dose of T20 and ODI, it isn't easy to keep the concentration & hunger going for long...makes 200 even more special #kohli
— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) July 22, 2016
To get back to the debate question, Kohli is currently ranked No. 1 in T20s, No. 2 in ODIs and No. 14 in Test matches. The anomaly is the Test matches, but there is a good reason for that. He struggled in the last two Test series – against Sri Lanka and South Africa – and there is also the fact that India haven’t been playing too many Tests lately.
All that could change over the next few months, with India scheduled to play 13 Test matches in the next 18 months.
More than the quantity of runs, it is the quality which makes Kohli the best batsman in the world. His record while chasing is phenomenal, and so is his performance in Australia – considered by most as the toughest cricket tour in the world.
In eight Tests Down Under, he has five centuries.
The only blip in his record right now is against England in England. In that much publicised disaster tour in 2014, Kohli could only make 134 runs in five Test matches.
But knowing Kohli, he will have already figured out a plan for the English conditions when India tour there next.
Two years and 55 days separate Virat Kohli and Joe Root in age, with the English batsman being the younger of the two at 25.
And England’s star player, fresh from his double ton against Pakistan at Old Trafford in his new role at No. 3, is the only man in world cricket who can stake a claim to being better than the Indian.
Some may argue Steve Smith, AB de Villiers and Kane Williamson should be brought into the equation. No doubt they are world-class, but Root is on his way to becoming one of the greats of the game.
Rarely has someone taken to international cricket so quickly and efficiently as Root. I would argue he is a more technically sound batsman than Kohli and more enjoyable to watch than his Indian counterpart in full flight, if we’re talking from a purest cricketing perspective.
And there’s no doubt Root can hit the ball just as hard and far as the Delhi man, as we witnessed during the World T20.
The Yorkshireman is also not exposed easily, yet Kohli still faces problems with off-stump awareness against genuine pace and the swinging ball, especially in England. I think the Indian batsman still struggles to keep his ego under wraps, too and knowing when to pull the trigger and attack in limited-overs cricket. Wrong timing has got him into trouble before.
There is no doubt the scrutiny of the Indian population on Kohli’scshoulders is higher than Root will ever experience, but that’s not to say that makes the former stronger mentally. Having worked with England before and gathered insight into Root’s character, he clearly has the temperament and longevity to sustain his form.
He is a competitive cricketer but has not had to curb his aggression like Kohli and I think this makes him a more-rounded, level-headed batsman. Root has played more Test cricket than Kohli (two more) due to England’s schedule and averages considerably more while India’s focus on the shorter-formats in recent years has helped Kohli’s cause.
We’ve not really been blessed with an out-and-out run-scoring battle between the two players at height of their powers yet. Fortunately, we don’t have to wait long as England tour India in November.
It’ll be a perfect time for Root to outshine Kohli on his own soil.
