Virat Kohli is a ‘freak’: Steve Smith lauds India captain
While these two modern-day greats are often pitted against each other, mutual respect is never lost between Virat Kohli and Steve Smith.
Virat Kohli, Steve Smith, Kane Williamson, Babar Azam, and Joe Root - the battle for the world’s best batsman largely revolves around these five gentlemen currently. Narrow it down further, it mostly boils down to Virat Kohli and Steve Smith. There is hardly anything common about their batting apart from their consistency in scoring runs. Kohli is more of an orthodox batsman, who scores in all three formats of the game with equal comfort and Smith is anything but orthodox but is perhaps the best Test batsman going around. While these two modern-day greats are often pitted against each other, mutual respect is never lost between Kohli and Smith.
It was therefore not a surprise, when the former Australian captain, in an Instagram Q&A session with fans referred Kohli as a ‘freak’ for his batting abilities, according to PTI.
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Kohli, who averages fifty-plus in all three formats of the game has scored 7240 runs in 83 Tests at an average of 53.67 with 27 hundreds to his name. In ODIs, his numbers are second to none currently. He has 11867 in 248 ODIs at an average of 59.34 with 43 hundreds to his name. He is only seven centuries away from going past Sachin Tendulkar’s world record tally of 49 in ODIs.
Smith, on the other hand, has played 73 Tests so far in which he has scored 7,227 runs at an average of 62.84. He has scored 26 hundreds so far.
Smith, who answered questions sent in by his fans on Instagram on Sunday, also said the Indian Premier League is his favourite tournament to play in. “Tough to beat the IPL. Playing with and against the best players from around the world,” said Smith.
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Asked Mahnedra Singh Dhoni, Smith responded saying the former Indian skipper is a “Legend! Mr Cool”.
India is scheduled to travel to Australian for a full series later this year and the 31-year-old said : “Can’‘t wait. Going to be awesome.”
Asked about his opinion on India batting great Rahul Dravid, Smith said “what a lovely gentleman and seriously good player.”