Unfair to even compare Virat Kohli with Joe Root: Kevin Pietersen

[lover]

SOURCE : PTI

Former England batsman Kevin Pietersen feels that it’s an unfair comparison between Joe Root and Virat Kohli since the statistically the Indian Test captain is way ahead of the Yorkshire lad.
Going through a purple patch, Kohli has often being compared with England batsman Joe Root, which Pietersen feels isn’t a fair comparison. “Kohli is as good as it gets. He is right up there. Root has good numbers, but it’s unfair to even compare Joe with Virat because his numbers are just phenomenal,” Pietersen was quoted as saying by ‘The Cricketer‘ magazine.

“He plays so aggressively – sometimes it’s like – are you serious? The way he makes big runs for his team so often is just remarkable,” he added.

Pointing out Kohli’s record average of 60 in the second innings during ODI run chases, Pietersen said: “I switched on the TV and saw him play that 85 not out at Dharamsala [against New Zealand] – goodness, that was amazing.

“He just has that ability to rotate the strike and find boundaries. His ODI record is a joke. Such an old head on young-ish shoulders.”

England will be up against a formidable spin trioka of off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, left-armer Ravindra Jadeja and leg-spinner Amit Mishra during their bilateral series against India.

Pietersen said England need to watch out for the doosra from Ashwin, who has been in red-hot form, picking up 153 wickets in 22 Tests at home. The Chennai offie scalped 27 wickets to help India blank New Zealand 3-0 in the recently concluded series and Pietersen said:”Ashwin is a good bowler. He uses his variations very well, especially the way he approaches the crease. He’s always looking to attack and outfox a batsman.

When I’ve played against him, I could pick his doosra, so I was OK. But if England’s batsmen can’t pick his doosra they’ll have issues. The low bounce might make it harder, but that’s part of the challenge of playing in India.

“Batsmen have got to find themselves a boundary option in India. It’s all about rotating the strike and manoeuvring the field. I was OK in India. I enjoyed it there and made plenty of hundreds there,” he added.

The last time England toured India in 2012, they had beaten the hosts 2-1. However, this time England is coming into the Test series after a shocking defeat to Bangladesh in the second Test at Dhaka. The first match of the series will be played at Rajkot from November 9.
http://www.indiandaily.in/unfair-compare-virat-joe-root-pietersen/

 

[El_Swordsmen]

Kohli is an outstanding player no doubt !!

 

[Ch Rashid Javed]

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[PakGuns]

Virat kohli is upgraded version of sachin...another lvl of game than sachin had through his career...too bad india brought cricket into their failed global agenda of "isolation"

 

[Russell]

Well that's just not true it is...

Kohli is obviously the better batsmen in the shorter forms of the game (ODI & T20), but Root atm has a significantly higher Test average (both have played 48 tests)

Root - Avg: 53.28 Runs: 4103
Kohli - Avg: 45.56 Runs: 3554

To his credit Kohli averages nearly the same home and away, so no one can accuse him of padding his numbers at home and Root will have to prove his skill in India against top class spin bowling.

 

[newb3e]

Virat kohli is upgraded version of sachin...another lvl of game than sachin had through his career...too bad india brought cricket into their failed global agenda of "isolation"

sachin was better cause criket specially pitches and bowlers were better! Kohli is good but no sir he is no sachin!

 

[friendly_troll96]

how to post any article in this website . do you help me ??

simple. kaan se pakar kar.

 

[Abba_Dabba_Jabba]

Virat kohli is upgraded version of sachin...another lvl of game than sachin had through his career...too bad india brought cricket into their failed global agenda of "isolation"

Sir have you even saw Sachin play ? His stance was completely different from Kohli, Kohli has more active stance and you can compare Rohit with Sachin, both have almost the same stance i.e. the lazy stance.

sachin was better cause criket specially pitches and bowlers were better! Kohli is good but no sir he is no sachin!

There is no comparison between K & Sachin, see the videos of Kohli and Sachin handling Saed Ajmal in the world cup and other tournaments (in the same match). You will see the difference, where Sachin was seen struggling and Kohli was hitting Ajmal very easily, not only that see Kohli against Malinga as well.

 

[newb3e]

Sir have you even saw Sachin play ? His stance was completely different from Kohli, Kohli has more active stance and you can compare Rohit with Sachin, both have almost the same stance i.e. the lazy stance.



There is no comparison between K & Sachin, see the videos of Kohli and Sachin handling Saed Ajmal in the world cup and other tournaments (in the same match). You will see the difference, where Sachin was seen struggling and Kohli was hitting Ajmal very easily, not only that see Kohli against Malinga as well.

Sir tell.me one thing without being biased!

Are the pitches of same quality the way they used to be ie support both fast bowlers and batsmen?

And compare quality bowling of past to now..do you think bowling quality is any better than it used to be...yes pitches are to be blamed!

But sachin faced better bowling attacks on pitches that supported bowlers more...currently most of the bowlers even top ones are below avg and then you have stupid batting friendly pitches and miniature boundries...cricket of past was better in my opinion!

And yes sir i am old enough to have seen sachin play and face mighty fast bowlers bravely!

 

[Abba_Dabba_Jabba]

Sir tell.me one thing without being biased!

Are the pitches of same quality the way they used to be ie support both fast bowlers and batsmen?

And compare quality bowling of past to now..do you think bowling quality is any better than it used to be...yes pitches are to be blamed!

But sachin faced better bowling attacks on pitches that supported bowlers more...currently most of the bowlers even top ones are below avg and then you have stupid batting friendly pitches and miniature boundries...cricket of past was better in my opinion!

And yes sir i am old enough to have seen sachin play and face mighty fast bowlers bravely!

On the same pitch Kohli was kicking ajmal's @$$. you can argue that Sachin was not in his best, but still Rohit can be compared with Sachin, not Kohli.

 

[SHAH07]

Joe root has better track record than virat kohli in test cricket
He is better than kohli for me as far as test matches are concerned

 

[newb3e]

On the same pitch Kohli was kicking ajmal's @$$. you can argue that Sachin was not in his best, but still Rohit can be compared with Sachin, not Kohli.

Well i dont like current cricket much its stupid and avg skilled players are gloryfied like they are brian lara! Bowling quality and bating friendly pitches make cricket boring...i liked 220-250 walli cricket where pitches support both batting and bowling and teams with more skills both batting and bowling skilled were top!

 

[SHAH07]

Sir have you even saw Sachin play ? His stance was completely different from Kohli, Kohli has more active stance and you can compare Rohit with Sachin, both have almost the same stance i.e. the lazy stance.



There is no comparison between K & Sachin, see the videos of Kohli and Sachin handling Saed Ajmal in the world cup and other tournaments (in the same match). You will see the difference, where Sachin was seen struggling and Kohli was hitting Ajmal very easily, not only that see Kohli against Malinga as well.

Sachin wasn't at the best of his form at that time his career was about to end at that time
And u r comparing how sachin played ajmal and malinga and how kohli , so u need to consider how would have kohli played the likes of McGrath , Shane warne , shoaib akhtar , wasim , waqar and others to make a just comparison

 

[Abba_Dabba_Jabba]

Sachin wasn't at the best of his form at that time his career was about to end at that time
And u r comparing how sachin played ajmal and malinga and how kohli , so u need to consider how would have kohli played the likes of McGrath , Shane warne , shoaib akhtar , wasim , waqar and others to make a just comparison

we do not have data regarding older bowlers so we can't compare. But Kohli has much better attacking and defending skill than Sachin.

I see Sachin as one of the great from India, but not on par against Rahul Dravid. He just got fame coz he belongs to Maharashtra and that's why he was medias favourite, and that is one of the reason he got "Bharat Ratna" too.

 

[Hyde]

Both are excellent players but Root still need to prove on overseas conditions.

I rate Kohli the best batsmen India has ever produced and Tendulkar goes may be on the 5th position in my book