Virat Kohli is unquestionably the best, says Ian Chappell

Bengaluru, May 18: Virat Kohli, Steve Smith, Kane Williamson and Joe Root form the modern cricket's Fab Four and former Australian captain Ian Chappell has little doubt that the current Indian skipper is the best among the quartet.

Kohli has so far played 86 Test matches scoring 7240 runs at 53.62, 248 ODIs making 11867 runs at 59.33 and 82 T20Is amassing 2794 runs at 50.80, making him the only batsman to average more than 50 in all three formats of the game.

"Of that group, Kohli is the best in all three forms. That's unquestionable. His record in all three forms is quite unbelievable, particularly his record in the shorter forms," said Chappell while talking on The RK Show, hosted by sports broadcaster Radhakrishnan Sreenivasan on YouTube.

1. Why Chappell rates Kohli the best

"Having listened to Kohli talk about batting, he makes a lot of sense. 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 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. Kohli's the same. He plays traditional cricket shots, and he plays them really well," stressed Chappell on why Kohli is the best modern batsman.

2. Kohli and fitness

Virat Kohli has set in a culture of fitness in Indian cricket team and Chappell admired him for that. "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," said Chappell.

3. Kohli the fearless captain

Chappell expressed his admiration for Kohli's captaincy and said he liked the Indian's desire to win cricket matches as the leader of his team. "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," said Chappell.

4. Cricket after Corona

Chappell also had some advice for what cricket administrators should do to move the sport forward in a post-Coronavirus world.

"I'd like to think that in this period of hiatus the administrators would be thinking about where they want the game to go. You have a period where no cricket is being played, this is the ideal time for some thinking about the game and where it's going. They'll have to make some changes because of what's happened in the pandemic.

"Whatever they do in the future, it's got to be a partnership between the administrators and the players. The only way the game is going to go forward, and go forward in a good, positive way is if we work together," Chappell said.