The Indian skipper, Virat Kohli won yet another player of the series award as India defeated Australia to clinch the three-match ODI series 2-1. After India had lost the first ODI by 10 wickets, Kohli led from front in the last two ODIs, helping India seal the series coming from behind. Kohli and Steve Smith were two of the most successful batsmen in the series.
Their performances once again left the fans as well as experts divided in their opinions as to who is the best player in all the formats. Former England skipper Michael Vaughan was mighty impressed by Kohli’s performance and termed him as the “best all-round” batsman across formats. Vaughan’s comments came in reply to a Twitter post which had termed Smith as the “finest all-format batsman”.
Replying to the post, Vaughan tweeted, “Disagree … Virat is the best all-round… !!”
Disagree … Virat is the best all round … !! https://t.co/zJPt7v8ewS
— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) January 20, 2020
Both Kohli and Smith have been playing a crucial role in their respective team s for quite some time now. However, in the ODI series, Smith scored the maximum number of runs in the series and behind him was the Indian skipper Virat Kohli. Making his first ODI appearance since last year’s ODI World Cup, Smith amassed 219 runs in just two innings while Kohli managed 183 runs in three innings.
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After missing a century in the second ODI, Smith surpassed the three-figure mark as he scored 131 runs in the third match — his first ODI century in three years. However, Kohli failed to score a hundred in the series but anchored the Indian innings in the middle overs, which contributed to India’s victories in the last two ODIs.
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Smith’s both the knocks in the series wasn’t enough to help his team to win the games, while Kohli’s both half-centuries led India to a comfortable victory. As far as the rankings are concerned, Virat is on top of ODI and Test rankings and occupies the 9th spot in the T20I ranking — which speaks volumes of his prolific run-scoring abilities across formats.
On the other hand, Smith is on the second position in the Test ranking while he misses the Top-10 positions in both ODI as well as T20I rankings.
