Alex Hales feels Virat Kohli "is from another planet"

What's the story

England's opening specialist in the limited-over formats, Alex Hales, opined that Virat Kohli is “from a different planet altogether”, while Joe Root would go on to break a slew of records in cricket for England.

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Hales has scored 4476 runs from 132 games across all three formats. Much of his success has come from limited-over games, where he is an integral part of the squad.

He was also the No.1 ranked T20 batsman in 2014. He had featured in the recent England-India T20I series, becoming man-of-the-match in the second game for his 41-ball-58 that helped England seal a win.

Virat Kohli has been the topmost level ever since he started playing for the national side in 2008, having amassed 17979 runs across 343 international games so far. He is currently the World's No.1 ranked batsman in both Tests and ODIs.

He has also been the best-if not only-performing Indian batsman in the whole of the ongoing England-India series.

Root, current captain of the England Test squad, is arguably one of England's finest batsmen of the current generation. Root's statistics stand at 11741 runs from 217 games across formats. He is also ranked fifth among Test batsmen and third among ODI batsmen.

The details

Like everyone else who is paying attention to the England-India contests, Hales has also been observing the prime form of the Indian captain with the bat – irrespective of whether it was a T20I, ODI or a Test match.

Highlighting the point, he said, “Kohli is almost from a different planet at the moment. He is playing a different game even in Test matches in England and on difficult batting pitches, he made it look very easy. I would say he is head and shoulders above all and he does something special in all the matches.”

At the same time, he did not allow any miserliness to overcome him when it was time to speak of his own colleague. It was evident from his words on Joe Root, that he held the latter on a high esteem.

Hales said, “He is an incredibly special guy. Ever since he was 19, we all knew he is going to be one of England’s greats. He is only 27 now and has nearly 10 years left in him and may probably set some records for English cricket.”

He also went on to talk about the match-winner he played out at the 2nd T20I in the series. He remembered that they were down 0-1 at that point, and needed someone to perform and keep the contest alive when he himself donned the role of saviour. That being the first time he batted at No.4, made the innings “special”, he explained.

What's next

Hales was talking to GulfNews after arriving in Dubai to play for the Maratha Warriors in the upcoming UAE T10 cricket league. Though the event will be held only from late November, he explained that he had arrived earlier to take a look at the conditions beforehand.

He will also be seen doing a few rounds around the Arab Emirates, for the purpose of promotion of the tournament. He had earlier scored his first ODI hundred in Dubai as well.