There have always been the debates over Kane Williamson, Joe Root, Virat Kohli and Steve Smith regarding the best batsman in the world across the formats. However, a lot of experts and the former cricketers failed to give their best while picking one among them. Meanwhile, Mike Gatting stamped his trust on the Indian skipper Virat Kohli.
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Kohli is regarded as one of the modern-day greats and has been piling on runs regularly for India in all three formats of the game. He is currently leading India in their ongoing tour of West Indies which commenced with a three-match T20I series. Kohli continued his purple patch in the series and looked in fine touch.
Meanwhile, the former England captain Mike Gatting said he would rate Indian captain Virat Kohli as a great for the kind of consistency he has shown with the bat across formats. Mike Gatting, on Thursday, distinguished Virat Kohli from one of the greats to the greatest of his generation for consistency across formats.
Kohli deserves it – Mike Gatting
Gatting spoke after launching the book ‘Fortune Turner‘, penned by Sachin Bajaj and Aditya Bhushan, at the Royal Bombay Yatch Club here on Thursday. The book is based on the famous Indian spin quartet of Bishan Singh Bedi, B Chandrasekhar, Erapalli Prasanna and S Venkataraghavan.
“Yes, Kane Williamson is very good now. Yes, Steve Smith has reignited his career and his ability to play one-day cricket… but to see someone like Virat perform so regularly and so well in all three formats, he does deserve that tag of great (player) without a doubt,” the former England captain was quoted as saying by PTI.
Virat Kohli plays all formats with Greatness:
Gatting, who is one of the chairman of the World Cricket Committee of the lawmakers of the game, London-based Marylebone Cricket Club, also hailed Virat Kohli for picking Test Cricket over the limited-overs format. He believes that is the best quality of him, something, which would be lacking in the other cricketers.
“He (Kohli) has said Test cricket for him… if you have to be regarded as a great player, you have to play Test cricket. This is fantastic. The fact that he plays all forms of cricket with a greatness, that I don’t think you see from a lot of other people and possibly might not,” he said.
The Indian skipper has undergone massive transformation since his early days in cricket. And also, worked tirelessly on both his batting and fitness to become a world-beater. Kohli has been one of the most consistent batsmen across formats in the past couple of years. Currently, he is the number one batsman in both Test and ODI rankings.