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Joe Root can score runs in all conditions, Virat Kohli can't: Stuart Broad

Stuart Broad rated both Virat Kohli and Australian skipper Steve Smith below Joe Root.

New Delhi, Dec 28: Days after England pacer James Anderson questioned Virat Kohli's technique, his teammate Stuart Broad on Wednesday (Dec 28) said his compatriot Joe Root is better than Kohli.

Top 10 batsmen with most international runs; Kohli dethrones Root

Broad, who happens to be among leading all-time wicket takers for England, rated both Kohli and Australian skipper Steve Smith below Root.

Joe Root can score runs in all conditions, Virat Kohli can't: Stuart Broad

Broad told Cricket Australia's website, "I'd say Joe Root, but just because I've played a huge amount of cricket with him. I know that he makes runs in a lot of conditions, pretty much all conditions, and he has scored runs at really big times for us as an England team. I think when you've played closely with someone for that long a period of time, you see a lot of their strengths. He, in my mind, is built up to be the best player I've seen because I see him every day."

As per Broad, Kohli, who was the highest run-getter in the year 2016, is less consistent that his Australian counterpart Smith.

(Top 5 Test batsmen of 2016; Virat Kohli rules the roost)

"The likes of Steven Smith and Joe Root, they have this consistency of every time they go out to bat they're just desperate to score big runs and that makes them the top of the tree - that makes them the best players in the world."

Supporting his opinion Broad stated that Kohli is vulnerabile outside the off-stump and this weakeness of the Indian dasher can be exploited.

"One thing about Virat, the only dismissal you feel in the game with is a nick. He's so strong off the pads and he doesn't really get bowled a huge amount. In the conditions, we played there, his hunger for runs was just spectacular," he added.

Earlier, his teammate Anderson, perhaps, had similar observations about Kohli when he questioned Kohli's batting technique saying the 28-year-old flourished in home conditions.

(Mature Virat Kohli has the perfect reply to James Anderson's technique remarks)

Anderson triggered a massive controversy by saying Kohli had made a mountain of runs in Indian conditions, which according to the England pace spearhead, "take any flaws out of the equation".

"I'm not sure he's (Kohli) changed. I just think any technical deficiencies he's got aren't in play out here. The wickets just take that out of the equation. There's not that pace in the wicket to get the nicks, like we did against him in England - with a bit more movement.

Comparison between Joe Root and Virat Kohli:

It seems Broad took the leaf out of Anderson's book but he seems to have forgotten that Kohli slammed 2 ODI centuries during India's tour of Australia, earlier this year.

Kohli slammed his career's first Test double on Caribbean soil and was the highest run-getter in the England-India Test series.

To put things in perspective, Kohli plundered 1,215 runs in 12 Tests and went on slamming 4 centuries, including 3 double tons, by the end of 2016. His Test average is a whopping 75.93 in 2016.

Before start of England series Kohli averaged a paltry 13.40, which after the 5-Test series stands at 44.40.

At the end of 2016, Kohli is first and only batsman in world cricket who averages 50-plus in all three formats of the game.

England's Root, Alastair Cook and Jonny Bairstow scored more runs than Kohli (as they played 5 more Tests than Kohli) in 2016, still Kohli was a class apart from these players.

On the contrary, Root struggled consistently on Indian pitches throughout the 5-Test series in India. If Kohli scored 655 (8 innings) in the five Tests, Root scored 492 (10 innings).

If one compares their (Kohli and Root's) overall performance on foreign soil then both average 44. This proves there is hardly any difference between Root and Kohli, in terms of overseas performances.

Thus, Broad's observation on Kohli and Root seems taken more out of bias than reason.

OneIndia News

Story first published: Thursday, August 3, 2017, 7:40 [IST]
Other articles published on Aug 3, 2017