‘He’s one of the most consistent after Sangakkara’: Mathews picks between Kohli, Smith, Root, Williamson

Kohli, Root, Williamson and Smith are four of the world’s best batsman at the moment, along with the likes of Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock.

Angelo Mathews, the former Sri Lanka captain has made his choice between Virat Kohli, Steve Smith, Joe Root and Kane Williamson as his best batsman. The all-rounder who’s played a major role in Sri Lanka’s T20 World Cup winning campaign in 2014 and their road to the final of the 2011 Cricket World Cup, 2009 ICC World Twenty20 and 2012 ICC World Twenty20, believes the India captain takes the cake ahead of his contemporaries due to the consistency with which he scores runs.

All are serving as captains of their respective teams, barring Smith, who had to step down due to his 12-month ban. (Getty Images)

Kohli, Root, Williamson and Smith are four of the world’s best batsman at the moment, along with the likes of Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock. Each of them came through the ranks at the same time and are serving as captains of their respective teams, barring Smith, who had to step down due to his 12-month ban. Mathews, who’s played against all these batsmen, went with Kohli as his pick, believing the India captain is one of the most consistent batsmen after a Sri Lankan legend and a former teammate of his.

“I would go with Virat Kohli as he is one of the most consistent after Sangakkara,” Mathews told CricTracker.

Looking back at the 2011 World Cup final against India, Mathews reckons Sri Lanka fell some runs behind and another 50-odd runs could have made the difference. Led by Mahela Jayawardene’s gritty century, Sri Lanka set a target of 275, which India chased down due to Gautam Gambhir’s scintillating 97 and an unbeaten 91 from their captain MS Dhoni. That said, Mathews acknowledged the contribution of Kohli, who scored 35 and got India out of trouble with an 83-run stand after they’d lost openers Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag for 31.

“I still feel that if we had gotten about 320, we could’ve given a good fight even against India’s strong batting line-up. Indian wickets are flat as roads and when a batsman gets going, it can be really tough to stop him. India had a gun batting line-up as well. Wankhede is not a massive stadium, but the ball stays hit when you hit it and the pitch was also good,” Mathews said.

“We were short by about 20 to 30 runs. We had our chances, but Gautam (Gambhir) and Virat (Kohli) batted really well. Then, MS Dhoni joined them and finished it off. All in all, it was a good game.”