It's been great to meet Virat Kohli at a young age and follow his progress: Kane Williamson

New Delhi, June 7: New Zealand captain Kane Williamson has praised his Indian counterpart Virat Kohli and said he's fortunate to have played alongside him. Kohli and Williamson know each other from their U-19 days and after their entry in the national side, they established themselves as the backbone of their team's batting line-up.

Speaking in a recent episode of Star Sports' show Cricket Connected, Williamson said, "Yes, we are fortunate to play against each other. It has been great to meet at a young age and follow Kohli's progress and his journey," the batsman said. "It's been interesting, we've had to play against each other for a long period of time," he added.

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The talented right-handed batsman further revealed that their relationship developed as time progressed and found some common grounds despite having different batting approach.

"But actually, probably over the last few years we just shared our views on the game, some honest thoughts and found some common grounds despite, perhaps, playing the game little bit differently in terms of physically and maybe our on-field characters I suppose," Williamson added.

Williamson was that the receiving end after New Zealand were whitewashed by Australia in the three-match Test series but Kohli firmly backed and said: "I don't think leadership can always be determined by the results. It's also about how you can get the team together and get the guys functioning under you as well, which I think Kane has done wonderfully well.

"He has the respect of his teammates and he has the trust of his teammates, is what I can see, and he's also a very, very smart cricketer."

Both Kohli and Williamson are poles apart in terms of character and personality. If the Indian skipper is aggressive and flamboyant, the Black Caps' captain remains calm and hardly shows his emotion on the field.

During the final T20I between India and New Zealand in the Kiwiland, Kohli and Williamson were seen sitting near the boundary ropes and chatting. The picture went viral on social media.