Virat Kohli Is The Best Batsman In All Three Forms Of The Game: Ian Chappell

Virat Kohli, the current captain of the Indian Cricket Team, has impinged himself in the record books as one of the greatest batsmen that this beautiful game has ever seen.

Kohli, who racked up more 20,000 runs across all formats of the game in the recently concluded decade, is the only batsman in the current era to average more than 50 in Tests, ODIs and Twenty20 International cricket.

Kohli is the part of the Fab-4 which consists of a celebrated batsmen like Joe Root, Steve Smith, and New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson, but according to the former Australian captain Ian Chappell, the Indian superstar is unquestionably the best batsman across all forms of the game in the modern era.

“Of that group, Kohli is the best in all three forms. That’s unquestionable. His record in all three forms is quite unbelievable, particularly his record in the shorter forms,” Ian Chappell said during The RK Show, hosted by sports broadcaster Radhakrishnan Sreenivasan on Youtube.

Also Read: Virat Kohli Picks Sachin Tendulkar’s Epic ‘Desertstorm Innings’ As A Knock That He Wished He Had Played

Ian Chappell compares Virat Kohli’s style of batsmanship to Viv Richards’ approach

Chappell is highly impressed with Kohli’s approach towards batting. The former captain-turned commentator alluded to the interview that Kohli had given during his last visit to Australia where he had explained why he doesn’t employ fancy shots while batting in short forms of the game.

Kohli had said that he didn’t want bad habits to creep in his game, which is why he prefers to play text-book strokes. Chappell likened Kohli’s approach to the one adopted by Viv Richards, who all relied on playing orthodox strokes and yet scored at a brisk rate.

“Having listened to Kohli talk about batting, he makes a lot of sense. I like his approach to batting. We did an interview with him last time India were in Australia, and one of the things he talked about was why he didn’t play the fancy shots, the innovative shots of T20 cricket,” Chappell said.

He added: “He said he didn’t want those to creep in his batting in the longer form of the game. The best short-form player in the time I played was Viv Richards, and he just played normal cricket shots but he placed the ball so well he was able to score at a very fast rate. Kohli’s the same. He plays traditional cricket shots, and he plays them really well,” stressed Chappell on why Kohli is the best modern batsman.

Also Read: Ian Chappell Proposes A Radical Change In LBW Rule

“He doesn’t fear defeat” Ian Chappell on Virat Kohli-The Captain

Chappell also heaped praise on Kohli’s supreme fitness and the manner in which he pushes himself while running between the wickets.

“The other thing that stands out about Kohli is his fitness and running between the wickets. The way he pushes himself, he’s incredibly fit. Some of his performances are quite amazing,” said Chappell.

The former Australian captain also talked about Kohli’s leadership skills and according to him, one aspect of Virat’s captaincy that he likes the most is he does not fear losing and always pushes for a victory.

“The one thing that stands out to me is that Kohli is the one (captain) that doesn’t fear defeat. He’s prepared to lose a game in trying to win it. You’ve got to be that way as a captain in my opinion. I like that approach,”Ian Chappell said.

He added: “I thought when he took over the captaincy that he was so emotional, it might affect his captaincy adversely but I think he has reined that in a little bit. He has made that work for him in his captaincy rather than work against him. He’s a pretty smart cricketer,”

Also Read: Babar Azam Should Be Compared With Virat Kohli After Five Years, Not Now: Younis Khan