“He has shown why he is different”- Ravi Shastri hails Virat Kohli’s consistency

Former Indian head coach Ravi Shastri has lauded Virat Kohli for his supreme consistency at the top level. Kohli has performed consistently in the last 15 years and has done a tremendous job for the team. Shastri hailed Kohli for his versatility, and adaptability to get the best out of himself.

Kohli has performed brilliantly in all three formats of the game and has always lifted his game to deliver the goods. The talisman could not deliver in the first seven matches of the T20 World Cup however he scored a match-winning knock of 76 runs off 59 balls in the summit clash against South Africa at Barbados.

Kohli is often compared with greats like Ricky Ponting, Brian Lara, Sachin Tendulkar, and Sir Vivian Richards and Shastri reckons it is not fair to compare players of different eras.

Ravi Shastri said on ICC Review, “You cannot compare players of different eras. But if someone can stay on top of the sport for that long, this showed his versatility, his ability to adapt and just shows his skillsets to do that. Not many can do that. But he has shown why he is different.”

Shastri added Kohli is one of the greats of the game as he has proved his mettle in all conditions across formats.

“I think one of the greats of the game. I think he dominated that decade across formats of the game. When you look at one player who dominated all three formats of the game for a period of ten years, it had to be Virat Kohli. You would get Joe Root in one format, Steve Smith in one format, Rohit Sharma in one format. But this guy was in the top three across formats,” Shastri stated in the same interaction.

Meanwhile, Kohli returned with scores of 24 and 14 in the first two ODIs against Sri Lanka and he will look to convert his start into a substantial score in the third ODI, which will be played at R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo on Wednesday.