Australia legend Greg Chappell has showered praise on India batter Virat Kohli for his match-winning knock against Pakistan, saying his innings legitimized T20 cricket. The 74-year-old went on to call Kohli the most complete Indian batsman of his time.
Writing in a column for The Sydney Morning Herald, the former India coach lauded Kohli’s heroic knock of 82 runs off 53 balls against Pakistan, saying Kohli legitimized T20 cricket as an art form.
“Ironically, it was also the innings that legitimized T20 cricket as, dare I say it, an art form, more than any that I have seen in the past 15 years. Nobody can dismiss T20 cricket as simply entertainment ever again. I can think of many of the best hitters in the modern game who could have pulled off a similar victory, and probably have, but none has ever done it with pure batting skills in the manner that Kohli did against Pakistan,” wrote Chappell.
The former Australia cricketer called Kohli the most complete Indian batsman of his time, saying only Tiger Pataudi came close to transcending a similar stratosphere.
“None of the greats of bygone eras could have dismembered an opponent so brutally without compromising the niceties of the art of batting than Kohli did last Sunday night. Kohli is the most complete Indian batsman of my time. Only the greatest of champions have the courage and the intelligence to transport their imagination beyond the mortal plane. Kohli has that. Perhaps only Tiger Pataudi has come close to transcending a similar stratosphere,” Chappell added.
