Former India wicketkeeper Saba Karim believes Virat Kohli‘s form in white-ball cricket has dipped in recent times. According to Karim, the Indian skipper will have to up the ante in the shorter formats of the game to be unanimously recognized as the best all-format player today.
Talking on the Khelneeti podcast, Karim believed that AB de Villiers has been the best batsman across all formats in the last decade. Nevertheless, Virat Kohli took over the mantle after the former South African skipper retired from international cricket in 2018.
“ABD was the biggest multi-format player until he retired. After that, it’s been Virat Kohli, but he needs to perform in white-ball cricket as his performance has dipped in recent times. Kane and Warner are other, all-format players in the world currently,” said Saba Karim.
Virat Kohli is the only batsman yet in the world to average above 50 in all formats of international cricket. He averages an extraordinary 59.07 in ODIs, 52.65 in T20I, and 52.05 in Test cricket, sequentially.
Though, it is sure that since the start of 2020, Virat Kohli hasn’t been his usual self with the bat. Across 22 games in all 3 formats, he has gained only 842 runs at an average of 36.62 without a single century.
The Indian captain will hope to end his century drought soon and put on a solid performance with the bat in the upcoming series against England. Kohli and Co will want to perform a Test series win in England for 14 long years later.
The demand of power hitting in T20 works against Root and Smith: Saba Karim
During the talk on the Khelneeti podcast, Saba Karim also impressed upon the reasons for the stagnation of the T20 careers of Joe Root and Steve Smith. Despite being extremely successful in Test cricket, the duo has not managed to nail down spots in the T20 teams of their respective nations.
“The demand of power hitting in T20 works against Root and Smith as they are not power hitters. And even if they want to be now, they can’t be considering the stage of career they are in,” said Saba Karim
Joe Root said he would love to be part of England's T20 World Cup squad. He loves and playing all three formats, everything is a different challenge. (To BBC's Test Special).
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) February 3, 2021
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