Virat Kohli is a genius, the best batsman in the world, says Pakistan great Javed Miandad

Former Pakistan captain Javed Miandad heaped praise on Virat Kohli and the rest of the current crop of Indian batsmen. “What I really admire about Indian batsmen and the reason why they are so successful, is the fact that their batting technique is correct,” he is quoted as saying by pakpassion.net.  “In Virat Kohli’s case his batting method is what allows him to score runs not just once but almost every time he comes in to bat,” he said 

“If a batsman’s technique is bad, he can put some runs on the board once in a while, but he will not be able to do that consistently which is exactly true in Kohli’s case,” he said. Kohli has gone on overdrive in India’s ongoing tour of South Africa. India have won the three ODIs played so far and Kohli has scored centuries in two of them. He scored 160 off 159 in the Cape Town ODI and was unbeaten after coming into bat after the very first over of the match. “To me the mark of a great batsman, like Kohli is the fact that he can vary his technique by quickly understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the bowlers. Kohli is a genius who is the best batsman in the world,” said the Pakistan great.

Miandad also said that the gulf between the state of the game in Pakistan and India was evident from the way the Pakistan U-19 team lost to India in the recently concluded World Cup. At the same time, he also said that being too harsh on the Pakistan players would be unfair “The loss to India in the ICC Under 19 World Cup was by a big margin of 203 runs which is hard to take but if truth be told, our team was lucky to have progressed that far given the inexperience of our players,” he said, “Of course, victory and defeat are part of any sport, but we need to accept that there was a huge difference in terms of skills between both teams. Also, we should not be too hard on our boys as we saw how recently in South Africa, the Indian senior team which has some very big names failed miserably in 2 of 3 Tests, so such things can happen, and we cannot be too harsh on the Pakistan Under 19 team.”