Virat Kohli is a superstar, cricket is blessed to have him: Brendon McCullum

New Delhi, Dec 15: Former New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum has hailed India's Run Machine Virat Kohli and termed the latter as a superstar.

Ind-Eng series schedule; Kohli attains career-high rank

McCullum, who retired from international cricket earlier this year, said cricket is lucky to have a player like Kohli, who has made impact in all three formats of the game.

"He's an out-and-out superstar and he plays the game in the right way - he plays it hard on the field but he never really crosses the line, unless challenged in a different way. But he's an absolute superstar and I think the game is lucky to have him," Baz told cricket.com.au.

(Virat Kohli is the highest run-getter in India-England series)

Kohli has been in tremendous form in 2016 and the Test skipper has led the Indian side from the front. The 28-year-old Delhi-lad became the first Indian skipper to slam three double tons in the year 2016. India have won all 5 Test series in which Virat Kohli has led the side.

McCullum also highlighted how Kohli has changed the game with his new brand of cricket, which involves high intensity and fitness levels.

"If we look at Indian cricket over a period of time, they've always been immensely talented, but just with the high intensity he operates at on a consistent basis, he's taken that to a new level through his professionalism and his fitness. And I think you've seen a whole raft of cricketers since he's come on as captain as well really take that in their stride, and the IPL has been a catalyst for that as well," the aggressive batsman added.

With his batting prowess in the year 2016 Kohli has improved his batting average in Tests. The 28-year-old now averages 50+ across all three formats of the game.

In the ongoing series against England, the dashing Delhi batsman has scored 640 runs in 4 matches which is third highest, in a series, by any Indian batsman after Sunil Gavaskar.

Kohli averages whopping 128.00 in the series with 235 his highest individual score in the series. An impressive batting performance from the Indian skipper catapulted him to a career best at No. 2 in the ICC Test rankings.

OneIndia News