He may not have scored a hundred in Test matches since November 2019, former Australia all-rounder Shane Watson has picked Virat Kohli as the best among the current ‘big five’ batters in red-ball cricket.
Watson has rated Kohli ahead of Pakistan skipper Babar Azam, New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson, Australia’s Steve Smith and England Test captain Joe Root in the latest episode of The ICC Review, the ICC’s monthly podcast.
Though Smith and Williamson have a batting average that is better than Kohli and Joe Root has amassed more runs than all of them, Watson said he will rate the former India captain as No. 1 among the unofficial Big Five because of his high intensity every time he goes out to play.
“In Test match cricket, I am always going to say, Virat Kohli. It’s nearly superhuman, what he is able to do because he has such high intensity every time he goes out to play,” Watson said, when asked by Isa Guha, former England cricketer and commentator, about who he thought is the best Test batter in the world.
Watson rates Kohli at the top of the unofficial ‘big five’ with Babar Azam second, with Smith, Williamson and Root following in that order from third to fifth. Kohli has scored 8043 runs in 171 innings of 101 Tests at an average of 49.95, Babar has 2851 in 71 innings of 40 Tests at 45.98 is second while Smith with 8010 runs from 151 innings of 85 matches is third with an average of 59.77.
Williamson has scored 7272 runs in 150 innings of 86 Tests at 53.57 while Root has 9889 runs in 216 innings of 117 Test matches at 49.19.
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