Michael Slater rates Virat Kohli world’s best young batsman

Former Australian opening batsman, Michael Slater is impressed with Virat Kohli’s enormous batting talent, and rated the Delhi lad as world’s best young batsman at the moment.

Slater’s comments came in the wake of Kohli’s fabulous 77-run-innings that inspired Team India to a classy four-wicket victory against Sri Lanka on Wednesday. The former Aussie batsman believes Kohli is one of few batsmen who have appropriate technique for
every format of the sport.

"The thing that impresses me about Kohli is his technique. If you look at all the upcoming batsmen in the world, they have techniques for Twenty20 cricket and not Tests," said Slater who is on commentary duties these days.

The 23-year-old has played in 76 one-dayers so far, scoring 2968 runs at a fine average of 47.11. He also has eight ODI tons to his credit. A few analysts argue that Kohli is not good for the longest version of the game; however, his fantastic century in
the recent Test series against Australia was enough to seal their lips of the critics.

Slater described that the young man has a bright future ahead, adding: "The way Kohli goes back and across should be the foundation of batting, but nowadays, youngsters stay besides the ball to open the shots on the off side."

He also shared: "I have watched a lot of him on TV in ODI cricket, and the Indian media is constantly behind his inability to play the short ball. But as the tour progressed, he has looked more comfortable. That means he’s learning quickly, which is great
for India."

After an embarrassing 4-0 loss in the Tests, the Men in Blue are looking to show something different in the one-dayers. Kohli, who struggled with cramps during his knock at Perth, will be India’s main player in an aim to win the ongoing triangular series.

Slater also hoped that there will not be anything serious with Kohli’s injury, expecting the youngster to keep entertaining his fans.

"Let’s hope he is fit for the next game. He has the potential to score lots of runs in this series," he added.

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Posted by Rana Nasir Ghafoor on Feb 10 2012. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry