Published: Jan 18, 2017, 07:38 PM (IST)
Edited: Jan 18, 2017, 07:38 PM (IST)
It was just another day in the office for Virat Kohli on Sunday. He woke up, played a cricket match, scored a hundred and chased down another big total. Kohli brought up his 27th ODI hundred and 15 of them have come in successful run-chases. The great Sachin Tendulkar had 14. He has made run-chases in ODIs and batting look ridiculously easy. His 105-ball 120 and the 200-run stand Kedar Jadhav helped India win the Pune ODI and go up 1-0 against England. He continues to mesmerise all and Joe Root seems to be the latest entrant in his fan club.
Root, along with Kohli, Steven Smith and Kane Williamson, is one of the finest young modern batsmen in the game. He was England’s best batsman in the Test series that the visitors lost 0-4. Root continues to bat at No.3 in ODIs and was humble enough to admit that his Indian counterpart’s knock was more of an education for the English camp. “One thing he did was talk his partner through it at the other end and helped him construct his innings. There was a lot of thought behind it and for us, that is something we have got to learn from,” Root told The Guardian.
FULL CRICKET SCORECARD: India vs England, 1st ODI at Pune
Root, 26, had an extended winter break in England after he returned home to be with his fiancée to welcome the birth of his first child.
It is good to see contemporaries looking ahead to pick up the finer aspects from each other. Root, one of England’s finest ever, boasts of better Test numbers than Kohli but he admitted there is a lot he could learn from Kohli’s methods.
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“He’s one of the best at run chases in the game, in fact he probably is the best at it. His record says he’s got 15 hundreds chasing scores down now. I’d love to sit and chat to him, but I’ve not had that opportunity yet. Definitely watching him go about his business there is a lot of thought behind it,” Root added.
Earlier, Root had gone to an extent of naming Kohli as the No.5 batsman in his All-Time XI.
It is a mutual admiration club though. During the Test series, Kohli made no qualms in admitting Root’s class.
“Joe is an outstanding player, been very fond of the player and the way he goes about things, he is very positive, always thinks of any situation as an opportunity,” Kohli had said.
Root had scored 518 runs at 103.60 in the five-Test series in India’s tour of England in 2014. His superlative show helped England win 3-1.
Kohli’s supremacy has helped India gain advantage in this tour despite Root’s good form. In times to come, we are set to witness more gruelling contests between these two modern greats.
