Debasis Sen, Centurion: The Indian cricket team is currently the World No.1 Test team in the world, and their nine consecutive series win speaks about why they are the best side in Test cricket. Though we all know that cricket is a team game, but India skipper Virat Kohli’s influence is one of the main reason that the Men in Blue has reached this spot. According to many cricket legends, Kohli is currently the best batsman in the world. He scored 1059 runs in 10 Test matches in 2017, though the Proteas bowlers have given him a tough competition in 2018 as he has only scored 5 and 28 respectively in the first Test at Newlands, Cape Town.
After that, ahead of the second Test at Centurion, South African skipper Faf du Plessis took a dig at the Indian captain by saying that, to be best in the world “one has to be judged best all around the world”. By saying this he has hinted about India’s long home season where Virat had scored a lot of runs.
“Anyone who gets judged on being the best in the world, whether it is a bowler, batsman or team, I feel should get judged all around the world,” du Plessis said on being asked if he considered Virat Kohli to be the same with AB de Villiers or better when it comes to batting in Tests on the eve of the second Test.
Beside criticising Kohli, Faf heaped praise on AB de Villiers by saying that he is still very hungry to do well at this age which is really helping the side.
“His job is to score big runs and make an impact with the bat. I know he is very hungry to do well, and a hungry AB usually means a big run-scoring AB. So, hopefully over the next few months, we will get a lot of runs from him,” said du Plessis.
“One less batter makes your responsibility on the top six a little bit more. I don’t mind that. Sometimes when you have a long batting line-up, you can take your foot off because someone else might come and do that. We know if we get totals on the board with the bowlers that we have, then we’ll bowl sides out,” he said.