A penchant for batting grammar, a fetish for consistency:
AB de Villiers has brought some serious improvisations to T20. When in the mood and on song, he is like a cyclone. Even Kohli regards him, the best in the world. On the other hand, Chris Gayle’s batting is about fully frontal assault, a brutal power. When in the mood and on song, Gayle comes up with the ruthlessness of a dictator on the 22 yards. And the best thing with Kohli is that he can blend de Villiers’ improvisations and Gayle’s ruthlessness into his batting is always in the mood and on song right now.
In 2016, he has actually given new meaning to the word, consistency, with his batting masterclass. These were his scores in IPL 9: 75, 79, 33, 80, 100, 14, 52, 108*, 20, 7, 109, 75*, 113, 54* and, believe it or not, a 0. In the final he again scored a brilliant 54. As you can see, the centuries didn’t come at the cost of consistency. Kohli has fired seven other scores of 50 or more.