There has been a debate in the cricketing fraternity about who the best batsman in the current game is. The whole argument revolves around Virat Kohli, Steve Smith, Joe Root and Kane Williamson who are popularly known as the Fab Four. Former Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne opines that Kohli has an edge over the other batsmen, he says Virat Kohli is the best batsman in the world.
While chatting with a few journalists in Southampton, he rated the Indian captain as the best across all 3 formats. However, he feels that Steve Smith is ahead when it comes to the longest format of the game.
Virat Kohli is the best batsman in the world
“Definitely Virat Kohli is the best batsman in the world at the moment across all formats. But if you ask me who the best batsman in test cricket, it has to be Steve Smith,” Warne was quoted as saying by Xtratime.in.
Kohli is currently the top-ranked batsman in the world in Test as well as ODI cricket. Steve Smith, before being suspended for ball-tampering charges, was at the helm of affairs in Test cricket. Kohli overtook him recently while Smith, despite being away from the game for quite some time, holds the second position.
The second highest wicket-taker in Test cricket went on to say that Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara were the 2 best batsmen of his generation. The battles of Tendulkar-Warne and Lara-Warne were always the ones to look out for. Lara believes these 2 were the standouts among other greats of his time.
“To me, Brian Lara and Sachin were the two best batsmen in my time. I started in 1990 and ended in 2013. In this 23 years span, I saw Jaques Kallis, Ricky Ponting, Graham Gooch, Kevin Pietersen, Kumar Sangakkara, Dravid. All of them were fantastic players. Then there are the two standouts. Tendulkar and Lara were so much better than the others. I am not disrespecting the other great players but these two are class”, reckons Shane Warne.
“Kohli will go down as one of the greats”
There have been several speculations about Virat Kohli breaking all the batting records that exist by the time he hangs up his boots. Warne believes he will end up as a great player and in the current scenario, Virat Kohli is the best batsman in the world
“I think Virat can go down as one of the greats but you can’t say that right now as I think you can’t judge a player before he plays in all conditions against all players for a long period of time. On present form definitely, Virat Kohli is the best batsman in the world at the moment”, said the former leg-spinner.
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