Kohli and Root- The Tendulkar-Lara of modern-day cricket

In the later part of the 80s, when Sunil Gavaskar exited from the scene of International cricket, a child prodigy from Mumbai named Sachin Tendulkar started enthralling the fans world over. Though Sachin went on to achieve almost every record that a batsman could have imagined, he always had to face the comparison with the likes of Brian Lara and Ricky Ponting by the masses, as to who the best batsman of the era was. And when Tendulkar was about to hang his boots after a glorious 24-year long career, a certain young guy from Delhi announced his arrival on the international stage to fill the Goliath's shoes. Since his Test debut in 2011, Virat Kohli has come a long way in his career.

Both Kohli and Root are young batsmen and have been wonderful ambassadors of the game and represent the country with utmost pride. They have almost similar records and made their Test debuts not long ago. Virat had donned the India whites in 2011 for the first time whereas Root wore his maiden Test cap in 2012. In 50 Test matches, Virat has scored 3891 runs from 86 innings at an average of 48.04. At the same time, Root has a little advantage by scoring 400 runs more than Virat at an average of 53.20.

Stats don’t tell us the full ability of a sportsman; rather their quality and how they push themselves to improvement have a much bigger say. Both Root and Kohli are pretty similar and aggressive personalities. Kohli has a bit of an aggressive attitude though he channelizes that aggression into his batting brilliantly, which has made him a class apart among his contemporaries. On the other hand, Root may not show his aggressive demeanor more often, but while batting on the field, he takes on the bowlers with absolute ease.

It was not that they both didn’t have to face obstacles to reach where they are now, but with grit and determination, they came out of that like only champions do. The 2014 tour to England had come as a stumbling block in the honeymoon period of Kohli’s career. He failed severely during the tour, and found himself vulnerable against the swinging and seaming ball outside off.

Similarly, even Root had to work hard to nullify his initial technical flaws. The Yorkshireman had always had all the shots, but his initial flaws in choosing the proper shots made him vulnerable against the moving ball early on in his innings. But he weathered the phase and came out a more diligent batsman.

So, at the end of the day, there is very little that divides both of them. The Indian skipper has 14 tons to his name as compared to 11 of Root. However, centuries have never been the predominant benchmark of measuring the greatness in the game of cricket, but, there is a certain magic with the three-figure that gave Virat an edge. But, England plays a lot more Tests than India and it won’t take much time for Root to touch Kohli’s record.

Our human minds are always infatuated with comparisons, but it is better to witness the magic off the willow of two master-craftsmen.