Indian skipper Virat Kohli is known for wearing heart on his sleeves. In fact, it is his aggression mixed with his ability to score runs at will that makes him a favorite even with the otherwise vicious Australians.
One man who seems to be giving Kohli a strong competition is none other than his Australian counterpart Steve Smith. With his power-packed display in the recently concluded Ashes, people have already started calling him the second best Australian batsman ever after Sir Donald Bradman.
Steve Smith’s last five Test scores read 141*, 40, 6, 239, 76, 102* and 83. For Kohli, the stats read 42, 0, 104*, 213, 243, 50, 5 and 28. Yes, Kohli might have scored most of these runs against a slightly weaker opposition in Sri Lanka, but that doesn’t demean the fact that he has proved himself against every opposition in world cricket. And the debate on who among Kohli, Smith, Joe Root and Kane Williamson is the best batsman in the world at present still continue.
While most former cricketers refuse to get engulfed in the debate, former South Africa cricketer Kepler Wessels explained the scenario quite accurately. Speaking to CricketNext, Wessels said, “I think Kohli is terrific and I like the aggressive brand of cricket he plays. I like the way he can turn a match and the impact he has across all three formats. He is definitely one of the best batsmen at the moment. I like his personality and his aggression and the way he takes the game to the opposition. I think his leadership skills have been pretty good so far and it runs on the rest of the players.”
He further elaborated, “Look it’s always difficult to compare players because they play under different conditions, in different circumstances and also for different teams. They all have been superb in modern day cricket. But Kohli is more adventurous probably than the other three. Smith is just phenomenal in the way he puts runs together at the crease, Root is very correct (in his approach) as is Williamson.”
This aggressive approach of Virat sometimes forces him to play the ball on the fourth stump and edge it behind. But Wessels is not too vexed about the same and feels that a batsman of his caliber will soon find a way to tackle this issue. He said, “Well the South Africans will definitely target him in that fourth stumps channel outside off stump and get that ball to bounce. They feel they have got a chance there to get him out early in the innings. You know he is a good player and he will find his way out to counter that.”
While the debate over Ajinkya Rahane missing out in the first Test shall continue for some time to come, Wessels feels that the Indian cricket has moved forward and holds a dominant position on the cricket ground. He said, “I think Indian cricket has come a long way. But even in those days (Wessels’ time) they had a superb team with the likes of Kapil Dev in the early 80’s and later guys like Sachin Tendulkar took over. India always been a powerhouse, but these days they dominate more.”
