Last Update on: July 4th, 2019 at 04:39 pm
India skipper Virat Kohli is arguably the best batsman in the World Cup due to his sheer consistency and hunger for runs. Although the century has not come yet, Kohli has already struck five consecutive fifties in the ongoing ICC World Cup 2019. As India gear up for their last group match against Sri Lanka, West Indies great Brian Lara has heaped praise on the talismanic run-scorer calling him the run machine.
Kohli is a run machine: Lara
Meanwhile, Virat Kohli has led this Indian superbly in this World Cup. They have lost only one game against host England and except that have looked confident and thorough. Although Rohit Sharma has scored the bulk of the scoring with four centuries, Kohli has held the innings tight rotating the strike and going for the boundaries when needed. So far, he has scored 408 runs with five fifties and will look to keep up the form as the tournament reaches its business end.
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Brian Lara, who is closely associated with the World Cup working as a commentator, heaped praise on Virat Kohli. He also added that there is a massive gap between Kohli and the rest of the batsmen who are dominating the world currently. Lara also stated that irrespective of the format, Kohli is the best in the business.
“He (Virat Kohli) is a (run) machine. But sorry to say Sachin Tendulkar is my (choice),” he said. “But getting back to your question, no doubt there is a huge gap between Virat Kohli and the rest of the world in all forms of the game. Rohit Sharma might have got four centuries in this World Cup, (Jonny) Bairstow or whatever, if you want somebody to bat in T20, T10, 100 balls (cricket) or Test cricket, it is going to be Virat Kohli today, Lara added.
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Furthermore, Brian Lara added that if today Indian batsmen are doing well in away series, it is because of Sachin Tendulkar, who instilled such confidence in them. The legendary left-handed batsman has scored 22358 runs in international cricket and holds the record for the highest individual score in an innings in Test cricket.
“The (impression) Sachin left on the game is just unbelievable because he sort of bridged that period, where you felt that when Indian batsman leaves Indian soil, Indian pitches, they are not that good. But Sachin Tendulkar was good on every surface and all of the Indian batsman are good on every single surface today, I think simply because they took a page out of his (Sachin’s) book,” Lara concluded.
