Australia fans humiliate Babar Azam and Rohit Sharma, vote Virat Kohli as the best batsman

India superstar Virat Kohli has been voted as the best Test batsman in the world in a survey carried out by Australian news outlet SEN Cricket. The former India captain beat the likes of Kane Williamson, Joe Root, and Steve Smith to emerge as fans’ popular choice.

More than 20,000 votes were tallied in SEN Cricket’s 2024 Fan Survey and Virat Kohli emerged as the clear winner. The news outlet asked the Australian fans to keep their ‘Aussie bias aside’ and vote for the best red-ball cricketer in the world. And the Australian fans picked Virat Kohli over anyone else.

The batting superstar attracted an impressive 30.2 percent of the vote. Virat Kohli scored two centuries last year and recently impressed in the two-match Test series against South Africa. The right-handed batsman has a terrific record in Tests in Australia. He has 1352 runs in 13 Tests in Australia and only Sachin Tendulkar (1809 runs in 38 innings) has scored more for India than him.

Virat Kohli emerges as a winner in fan poll:

After Virat Kohli, New Zealand captain Kane Williamson garnered the most number of votes. He finished at the second spot in the survey after earning 22.4 percent of the vote. Williamson is currently the world number one Test batsman in the world, according to ICC Rankings.

At number three is Australia‘s batting mainstay Steve Smith, widely regarded as the best Test batsman of this generation. The fans picked Travis Head at number four followed by Joe Root, Usman Khawaja, Rohit Sharma, and Marnus Labuschagne. India captain Rohit Sharma finished at the seventh spot after managing to earn only 2.8% votes.

Here is the full result of the survey:

30.2% – Virat Kohli (IND)
22.4% – Kane Williamson (NZ)
17.6% – Steve Smith (AUS)
9.4% – Travis Head (AUS)
7.4% – Joe Root (ENG)
6.0% – Usman Khawaja (AUS)
2.8% – Rohit Sharma (IND)
2.1% – Marnus Labuschagne (AUS)

Meanwhile, Virat Kohli has pulled out of the first two Tests of the upcoming five-match series against England, citing personal reasons. The much-awaited series is scheduled to begin on Thursday (January 25) in Hyderabad. Kohli is expected to return to the team for the last three Tests.