India vs Australia | Never seen anyone dominate ODIs like Virat Kohli has, opines Shane Warne

India vs Australia | Never seen anyone dominate ODIs like Virat Kohli has, opines Shane Warne

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Shane Warne is of the opinion that he hasn’t seen a batsman who has dominated one-day cricket as Virat Kohli has so far in his career. The former Aussie leg-spinner also stated that the bowlers can take away both sides of the wicket out of the equation to make the Indian skipper struggle.

With the kind of form Kohli is in the debate on who is the best ODI batsman is now growing. The Indian skipper has 41 centuries in the 50-over format to his name with a total of 10816 runs at an average of 60.08. These staggering numbers are enough to draw a comparison with the legends of the game like Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, and Sir Vivian Richards.

Joining the debate, Australian spin great Warne has explained that he doesn’t think that anyone has dominated the 50-over format as Kohli has. He has even added that Lara and Tendulkar were the best batsmen against him he has played in international cricket.

"The one thing we can say is I don't think we have seen anyone dominate one-day cricket like Virat Kohli has. The best player I saw - Bradman's the best so he doesn't even come into the equation - but Viv Richards is the best player I saw. As a player, playing against them, Lara and Tendulkar were the two best players that I bowled to,” Warne told ESPNCricinfo.

"You know records are different in different eras and it's very hard to judge. All you can judge is how a player is in their era, and Virat Kohli is so far ahead in one-day cricket than everybody else - in hundreds made, especially while chasing - that sets him apart from everybody else that is playing. But is he as destructive as someone like Viv Richards was? And then you look at Lara and Tendulkar and how good they were… so I'm still working that out. Working out whether Virat is better than all of them, or just as good, or not quite as good. It's an interesting topic and debate that's fun to have with your followers on social. I'll come up with an answer very soon."

The way Kohli is hitting the ball all around the park in international cricket, many bowlers are struggling hard to pick up the wicket of the right-hander. In the last two ODIs against the Australians, Kohli has scored two hundreds which show the way the Delhi batsman has the upper edge over many good bowlers in world cricket. Warne stated that many teams are not applying the trick of taking away both sides of the wicket against Kohli which might put the Indian batsman in some trouble.

"I think the one thing you need to do with Virat, which is one thing teams don't do enough of, is take away both sides of the wicket," explained Warne.

"If you're going to bowl to Virat Kohli, you either bowl at leg stump and protect the on side, or you bowl wide of off stump and you protect the off side. You cannot bowl at the stumps, because he can hit you both ways. So, I think you've to take out one side of the field. Protect just one side of the field, that's how you bowl to very good players. I'd be bowling wide of off stump and letting him try to cover drive with a slip, short cover and some protection out there. So then it'll be very hard for him to get it over the leg side. That's what I'd be trying to do and hopefully get a little bit lucky and he mis-hits one."

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