As two of the modern game’s most talented and well known strokemakers, Virat Kohli and Joe Root have come up against one another for the third time on full tours in an interesting subplot to England’s first tour of India for four years.
The two have become their respective sides’ batting mainstays and have cultivated a stellar international reputation in the 2010s.
Comparisons between the stars of any era are inevitable, and statistical breakdowns of two noteworthy careers of this generation – even as they are being played out – make for interesting reading.
With the proliferation of T20s in the last decade or so, a third dimension has been added to gauge the effectiveness of players in various situations. They say that numbers don’t lie, so what truth are they telling us here – just how do Kohli and Root match up?
A TEST OF SKILL
The time, it seems, is ideal to weigh up the batsmen’s numbers in Test matches, for both Kohli and Root have played the same number – 51.
In 88 innings, the Indian Test captain has accumulated 3959 runs at 48.28 with 14 hundreds and 14 fifties. His English adversary, on the other hand, has 4402 runs from 94 innings at 53.03, notching up 11 hundreds and 25 fifties along the way.
Brian Lara says Virat Kohli and Joe Root are the two players he loves watching play Test cricket right now.
— 3AW Sports Today (@3AWSportsToday) November 23, 2016
Kohli has fewer not outs (six versus 11), but his runs per innings (rpi) of 44.98 falls short of Root’s 46.82. Even if an extra five non-dismissals were added to his denominator, Kohli is 1.62 runs per dismissal shy of Root.
Kohli’s 2016 run-scoring rate of 60.31 rpi (gathered in home games against England and New Zealand, and on a trip to the currently eighth-ranked West Indies), marks his best ever year in terms of pure run scoring. With the series against England not yet concluded, were Kohli for another six innings to equal Root’s present career outings, he stand a little over 4300 total runs – a little short of Root’s figures, suggesting the Englishman a better pure run-scorer.
Both men perform better at home than away, but the Yorkshire batsman has outperformed his opponent in both departments. The difference in their performances away from home is not as marked (Root’s 40.93 rpi against Kohli’s 43.72), and the Indian has also scored a much greater percentage of his runs abroad (55.21% v 34.39%), but Root’s numbers at home greatly exceed those of Kohli.
With 52.02 rpi in England, Root has won 16 matches at home, while Kohli has tasted victory in a near-identical 17 home games and recorded 46.65 rpi.
Breaking it down further, one can view Kohli as a splendid success in Australia and New Zealand, racking up 1206 runs at 60.3 rpi with six centuries – nearly half of his total tally – and a creditable performer in South Africa – only two games played, but with a total of 272 runs at an above-average strike rate of 55.73.
| ICC RANKINGS | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Test | ODI | T20I |
| Virat Kohli | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Joe Root | 2 | 7 | 7 |
By contrast, the southern hemisphere is something of a final frontier for Root; only 192 runs from eight innings in Australia, his most common career opponent, a single score of fifty-plus and a jittery strike-rate of 33.27.
Happily for the Yorkshireman, though, his performances in the West Indies (358 runs at 71.6 rpi and a strike rate of 73.21; Kohli has 327 runs from nine innings, 200 of them in one outing against a listless Caribbean opponent), South Africa (386 runs at 48.25 rpi) and the Middle East (287 runs at 47.83 rpi) are respectable, and his inability to advance beyond good starts seems to be the only stumbling block. Nevertheless, he has five Test scores of more than 150 against Kohli’s four.
When batting in the first or second innings of a game, Root performs admirably: 2928 runs at 57.41 rpi, scoring 10 of his 11 hundreds in these opportunities, while Kohli has 2610 runs at 53.26 rpi.
When batting in the third or fourth innings, however, Root’s performance drops to 1474 runs from 34.27 rpi and Kohli’s reads 1349 runs at 34.58 rpi. The latter’s fourth innings numbers, notably, stand at 724 runs at 45.25 rpi, two hundreds and a strike rate of 61.25.
Importantly, the bulk of Kohli’s runs have been scored from positions four and five in the batting order; 3447 runs at 47.87 rpi falls short of Root’s 2712 runs at 55.34 rpi from the equivalent positions. Root has also batted quite regularly at number three (where Kohli has batted in six innings); 1032 runs from 25 innings at a strike rate of 55.21, including his highest score of 254.
To round it off, the two batsmen’s performances in each other’s countries bears a look. Kohli, infamously, has mustered only 134 runs from 10 innings in England at 13.40 rpi, while Root has fared comparatively better in India, with 392 runs from eight innings at 49 rpi.
Tests winner: Joe Root
Between Kohli, Smith, Williamson & Root, would say Smith only slightly ahead in Tests but Kohli miles ahead in ODIs. #AUSvNZ
— Abhishek Singhvi (@DrAMSinghvi) December 4, 2016
ONE-DAY WONDERS
For eight years, Kohli has wreaked havoc on bowling attacks in the shorter formats of the game. His figures in one-day games read 7570 runs from 176 games at a strike rate of 90.43, with 26 hundreds and 38 fifties. By contrast, Root has, over the past three years, played 78 games for a return of 3017 runs, a strike-rate of 85.51, eight hundreds and 17 fifties.
Batting mostly at number three (117 games), Kohli has accumulated runs at a strike-rate of 91.31 in his favoured position. Root has batted more at number four (44 games), returning 1657 runs at 37.65 rpi and a strike-rate of 79.66.
Interestingly, when pushed to number three in the order, the England batsman’s figures sharpen to 47.73 rpi, a scoring rate of 0.915 runs per ball (rpb). In the same position, Kohli, renowned as a specialist, scores at 0.913 rpb.
Both willow-wielders enjoy playing against Sri Lanka; against no other opposition have Kohli (1856) and Root (825) scored more runs. Kohli has bested Australia several times – 1002 runs in 23 games at a 97.66 strike rate – while Root has struggled – 212 runs in 12 games at a 61.62 strike rate.
Against each other’s countries, Kohli (736 runs at 32 rpi) and Root (336 runs at 33.6 rpi) boast comparable average scores per innings, although the Indian (85.98 strike-rate) is quicker than his counterpart (81.55 strike-rate).
When chasing, Kohli’s numbers read 4701 runs in 95 innings (49.48 rpi) at 0.93 rpb. When batting first, they read 2869 runs in 73 innings (39.30 rpi) at 0.86 rpb. Root’s equivalent figures read 1217 runs at 33.80 rpi and 0.79 rpb (chasing) and 1800 runs at 48.64 rpi and 0.90 rpb (batting first).
In victories while chasing, Kohli has 3514 runs at 59.55 rpi and 0.97 rpb for his 62 wins and Root has 768 runs at 45.17 rpi and 0.86 rpb strike rate for his 21 wins.
ODIs winner: Virat Kohli
T20 VISION
From his 45 games, Kohli has 1657 runs, 16 fifties and a strike-rate of 135.48. His rate of scoring stands at 1.35 rpb. Root’s equivalent figures are 600 runs from 21 games, four fifties and a strike-rate of 137.29, plus a scoring rate of 1.37 rpb.
At their preferred position of number three, Root registers as a quicker scorer than Kohli. In home games, the Englishman has 196 runs in 6 innings at 1.39 rpb (Kohli: 526 in 14 at 1.44 rpb) while away from home, his figures read 103 runs in 5 innings at 1.17 rpb (KohlI: 563 in 14 at 1.39 rpb).
People always think their era was better. But couldn't ask for more with batsmanship from Kohli and Root. And AB and Warner and Williamson
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) July 23, 2016
When batting first, Kohli scores 723 runs at 1.38 rpb and 34.42 rpi, whereas Root has 352 runs at 1.30 rpb and 27.07 rpb. When chasing, Kohli’s figures sharpen to 934 runs at 46.7 rpi, although rate of scoring drops to 1.33 rpb.
Root’s performance rises considerably to 248 runs at 1.48 rpb and 41.33 rpi in less than half the total innings in which he batted first.
The Aussies are, yet again, a favourite opponent of Kohli’s. He has 401 runs in nine innings against them, a metric of 44.55 rpi and 1.44 rpb, plus four fifties.
By bulk of runs (152), Root has also performed his best against the old enemy, but his strike rate (171.23) and rpi (47.5) show better health against the respective talents of South Africa and New Zealand, although he has yet only played thrice against the latter opponent.
Against each other’s teams, Kohli (184 runs in six innings) outperforms Root considerably, but it is worth noting that the Yorkshire batsman has only featured twice (and batted once) for a total of 26 runs against his current hosts in the game’s shortest format.
T20Is winner: Virat Kohli
CONCLUSION
Although Kohli wins in two out of the three formats, one always tends to give more importance to Test cricket. With Root coming out on top in the longest format of the game, the contest is intend very close between the two future greats of the game.
In the end, you have to give it to Kohli by a small margin, because of the manner in which he has taken the two shorter forms of the game to new heights.
