Six Players Who Threatened To Catch Up With Virat Kohli But Fell Behind In The Race

With his recent performance in during the South African tour, the theory of Virat Kohli batting at a different level than the rest may be well cemented. Sheer volumes of his numbers are more enough to demoralize others among Kohli’s contemporaries.

According to Kohli, the year 2016 should be considered as his breakthrough year which trampolined him to a level a country mile above the rest.

Following the year in which he scored four T20 tons in a tournament, the disparity between him and the rest was quite visible as opposed to preceding years, where the competition between him and the others was prevalent.

Here, we look at some of the players who initially challenged Virat Kohli but fell behind in the race towards being the best.

Hashim Amla

For a long time since making his Test debut, Amla was tagged as a Test specialist. However, he took the world by surprise and featured as a premier batsman in all formats.

There existed a time when Kohli set records for being fastest to reach a particular milestone and Amla went on to break them easily. Amla is the quickest to reach 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000, 6000 run mark in ODI cricket.

However, runs for Amla stagnated in the recent years and the classy batsman isn’t quite making the runs with same frequency for his team in all formats. This makes him lag behind Virat whose peak isn’t quite mappable yet.

As a matter of fact, Virat Kohli broke Amla’s record to become the fastest to reach 17,000 international runs.

Kane Williamson

One-fourth of the modern day Fab Four, Kane Williamson, started off his international career along with Virat Kohli during the famous U19 World Cup in Kuala Lumpur. Williamson is considered amongst the contemporary greats of the game across all formats.

However, scheduling of New Zealand has always been an issue as the Kiwis get to play only a limited amount of games as opposed to a country like India.

This clearly impacted Williamson’s number in recent years. Even though Williamson started the race along with Kohli in 2008, the Kiwi is miles behind Kohli in the race towards greatness.

AB de Villiers

Just like Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers is universally adored due to his superhuman abilities. But having started his ODI career four years prior to Kohli, AB de Villiers lags behind in the tally of runs in ODI format.

With his recent unbeaten knock of 129, Kohli trumped Mr 360’s tally of 9577 runs, having played 20 innings less. Much has to do with the amount of cricket played by AB off-late. Due to workload issues, AB de Villiers has been sceptical about playing all formats of the game.

This is where Virat Kohli’s fitness regime comes into play. It is almost impossible to even imagine a cricketer play all 12-months in the year. With the jam-packed FTP scheduled by BCCI, Kohli is still able to perform in all formats, thanks to his supreme fitness.

Therefore, a superhuman like AB de Villiers is lagging behind Virat even after getting a headstart in the race.

Steve Smith

The Australian quadrant of Fab Four, Steve Smith, undoubtedly, is the best in Test matches with a jaw-dropping average of 63.75. Smith’s average, as well as his Test ratings, is the highest ever achieved only after Don Bradman.

However, one has a feeling, Smith is not a threat in limited overs format and only prioritizes Test cricket. Smith has been reluctant to play all three formats of the game. As a result, he has played only 138 limited overs fixture for his country.

That said, Virat Kohli averages above 50 in all three formats of the game and is the all-format captain for his country. With his Test record in the last season and a half, with the number of doubletons Kohli has amassed, it is fair to assume that Kohli is catching up with Smith when it comes to Test cricket as well.

If we compare the overall contributions to the team, Virat Kohli, again, is miles ahead of Smith, even after starting the race together.

Joe Root

The English unit of the Fab-Four, Joe Root has been struggling to convert his 50s into substantial scores off-late. Barring T20Is, Root has 63 half-centuries to his name and has only been able to convert 23 of them into the 3-figure mark.

This, many a time, has dampened England’s chances to take the winning advantage. Also, the additional weight of captaincy clearly affected his batting in the Ashes series.

Virat has a mammoth conversion rate which has enabled him to accumulate all the tons in his career. Out of the 62 half centuries in ODI and Test cricket, Virat Kohli has managed to convert 56 of them into three-figured innings.

Keeping in mind leadership abilities and conversion rates, yet again, Virat Kohli is miles ahead of one of the modern greats of the game.

Quinton de Kock

Much like Amla, his opening partner Quinton de Kock is destined towards greatness. De Kock holds the record of being the joint quickest to reach the 1,000 ODI runs mark.

De Kock had the tendency to score centuries at will against India but his effervescence fizzled out off-late. Although it is a small sample size to draw inferences, the wicket-keeper batsman has lost his Midas touch which made him a potential challenger to break Kohli’s records.