Virat Kohli And Rohit Sharma Are The Defining Pair Of The Modern Era: Kumar Sangakkara

Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are undoubtedly two of the greatest white-ball batsmen in the history of this beautiful game. The duo along with Shikhar Dhawan has been the bedrock of the Indian ODI team for almost a decade now.

While Virat Kohli has impinged himself in the topmost echelon as far as ODI batsmanship is concerned, Rohit Sharma too has come into his own ever since he was elevated to the opening spot during the 2013 Champions Trophy.

While Virat has 43 hundred and more than 11000 runs to his name in 50-over cricket, Rohit Sharma is the only batsman in the history of the game to score three double-tons and as many as five hundred in a single World Cup edition.

As a pair too, Rohit and Virat have been quite prolific. The duo have racked up 4878 runs while batting together which includes 18 century and 15-half century stands. Heaping high praise on the legendary pair, Kumar Sangakkara has hailed Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma as the defining pair of this generation.

“There is something very special about Virat and Rohit. That fact that rules have changed and maybe run-scoring might have become slightly easier in one-day cricket, but the fact remains that to be so consistent across all formats, he’s so consistent in T20 cricket. It’s incredibly hard, the volume of cricket that India athletes plays,” Kumar Sangakkara said on Cricket Connected.

He added: “So, I think you have to have a lot of respect for Rohit and Virat but understand that it’s all because of the players that have gone before and have done all the hard work then as well. So, it’s a knock-on effect, so in every era, there’s always a defining pair and in the modern era, it’s Rohit and Virat for India for sure.”

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Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma more dangerous than Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid: Kumar Sangakkara

Virat and Rohit have in the past credited their prolific run-making spree to former Indian legends in Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid, after having watched the duo amass 4363 ODI runs with 15 100+ stands on television. However, Sangakkara thinks that Rohit and Virat are more dangerous than their predecessors.

“If you look at Rahul and Dada, both of them are orthodox batsmen. They play beautiful cricket shots and are very technically correct, Dravid may be a little bit more so, but the ability to be as destructive with such rate and precision stroke-making is something that has to be really admired,” the former Sri Lankan captain reckoned.

“If you take the modern-day game, India has two of the best players in Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, who play orthodox cricket but who are just absolutely destructive in any format of the game. You don’t have to muscle the ball or put too much effort or look ugly doing it, they just play good cricket shots and results come,” he added.

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