Virat Kohli Is Like Roger Federer, Claims AB de Villiers

An all-time record of 20 grand slam singles title, one of the greatest grass court player ever having surpassed Pete Sampras or Bjorn Borg and an age defying spirit aside, India cricket team captain Virat Kohli is as natural as Swiss tennis legend Roger Federer, believes his Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) teammate AB de Villiers.

Virat Kohli has natural instincts and a splendid timer of the ball, much like the crosscourt forehand, one of the techniques that Federer seems to naturally imply on the court. AB de Villiers said, Kohli is like Federer in ‘tennis terms’ while Steve Smith is like the Spaniard Rafael Nadal.

Virat Kohli is like Federer, Smith is more like Nadal: AB de Villiers

AB de Villiers was asked to pick up the better batsman between Kohli and Smith in an Instagram live with Mpumelelo ‘Pommy’ Mbangwa. To which, he came out to this conclusion, adding that Kohli is better between the two as he has scored runs across the globe and won many games under pressure.

“It’s difficult (to pick between Virat Kohli and Steve Smith). Virat is definitely the more natural ball striker. Smudge (Smith) is also up to that.

“Let’s do it in tennis terms. Virat is like Federer, Smith is more like Nadal. He’s (Smith) mentally very strong and figured out a way of scoring runs, he looks odd at the crease, doesn’t look natural but he ends up breaking records and doing amazing things at the crease. But my pick is Virat, who is more of a natural ball-player. He’s scored runs all over the world, won games under pressure so he’s my pick,” de Villiers said.

Incidentally, Kohli had met Federer during the Australian Open 2019 in Melbourne after India’s ODI series triumph over Australia. During the meet, Kohli was amazed with the fact that Federer still remembers him.