Know why Ian Chappell thinks Kohli is 'unquestionably best at the moment'-

New Delhi, May 18: The former Australian captain Ian Chappell believes that current Indian skipper Virat Kohli is presently the world's best batsman across formats among the current generation of cricketers. His remarks came as former England batsman Kevin Pietersen said that Australia's top batsman Steve Smith was nowhere close to Kohli.

 

"Of that group (including Steve Smith, Kane Williamson, Joe Root), Kohli is the best in all three forms. That's unquestionable," Chappell said on 'The RK Show', which is hosted by Radhakrishnan Sreenivasan on YouTube.

 

"His record in all three forms is quite unbelievable, particularly his record in the shorter forms."

 

Kohli has scored 70 international hundreds including 27 centuries in Tests and 43 in ODIs with more than 20,000 runs. These numbers make his average more than 50 across all three formats.

 

Chappell explaining his reasons why he feels Kohli is the best, "I like his approach to batting. We did an interview with him last time India were in Australia, and one of the things he talked about was why he didn't play the fancy shots, the innovative shots of particularly T20 cricket.

 

"He said he didn't want those to creep in his batting in the longer form of the game. The best short-form player in the time I played was Viv Richards, and he just played normal cricket shots but he placed the ball so well he was able to score at a very fast rate. And Kohli's the same. He plays traditional cricket shots, and he plays them really well."

 

Kohli is known for sticking to the basics rather than playing fancy or unique shots.

 

The Australian added that Kohli's fitness also makes him stand apart from his contemporaries."The other thing that stands out about Kohli is his fitness and running between the wickets. The way he pushes himself, he's incredibly fit. Some of his performances are quite amazing."

 

Chappell also lauded his captaincy."The one thing that stands out to me is that Kohli is the one (captain) that doesn't fear defeat. He's prepared to lose a game in trying to win it. You've got to be that way as a captain in my opinion. I like that approach.

 

"I thought when he took over the captaincy that he was so emotional, it might affect his captaincy adversely but I think he has reined that in a little bit. He has made that work for him in his captaincy rather than work against him. He's a pretty smart cricketer," the legendary skipper said.