Former South African player AB de Villiers believes Virat Kohli raised the bar and set the ultimate standard for Indian cricket in away matches. While naming Sachin Tendulkar as the first to set the standard for India in away games, AB de Villiers said that Kohli took it to the next level as well.

Talking about the growth of Indian batters on his YouTube channel, AB de Villiers said, “I think of someone like Sachin Tendulkar way back, who started that trend for India. Yet, he wasn’t as strong as someone like Virat Kohli, who was even better. But Sachin was the first guy to show that as a subcontinent batter, you can do well in bouncy and seaming conditions. Virat took that forward and raised the bar.”

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“Because of that, there are quite a few players now like Rahul and Padikkal, who have started to up that trend and follow in the footsteps of a Virat and a Sachin,” he again shared.

AB de Villiers also lauded Indian opener KL Rahul for scoring most of his Test centuries away from home after the first Sri Lanka-India Test at Galle as well. He also urged Rahul to convert his good starts and hundreds into bigger scores to improve his overall away average of 34.46 as well.

“KL is a guy with a sound technique and is a big asset in that Indian lineup. But he averages only 34 away from home. So you’ll expect more and that is one area where he has to work on. He has to get bigger scores once he gets in and not just get a 100 but make it a 180 because that first-ball duck and getting out to the newish ball is always around the corner. So for him, the name of the game will be to make the big scores even bigger,” AB de Villiers concluded.