Virat Kohli: The Unannounced King, who already Rules

Past decade has seen a number of changes in world cricket. From the growth of t20 cricket to India becoming a powerhouse on the world stage. Above all, one major highlight has been the rise of a man who came into the scene and had the potential of becoming the king, but someone who believed he already was one.

It has now been a longtime debate on whether or not Kohli is currently the best batsman in the world which seems absurd. If you see the last 4 years and his performance in all the formats, he by far has been the best compared to his contemporaries. Why do I say this? When we talk about ODIs, there has been no comparison to this bloke. Not only in the present times, he arguably sits in the top 3 greatest ODI batsman of all times, a list which includes Tendulkar and Richards and it should not be of any surprise if he eventually goes on to become the greatest of all time but let's keep that for another day. An average above 50 in the T20 format is unreal. Although it is still a debate on whether he has overtaken Steven Smith in the test format, yet he is right up there.

When you play against Virat Kohli, you are not only playing against a cricketer but also a warrior who wants nothing but winning. People can speak whatever they want about his approach but the amount of focus and energy he has before each delivery, be it batting or on the field must be physically and mentally exhaustive and to be able to do that bowl after bowl, match after match, series after series is quite inhuman.

People like KP, VVS Laxman and Azharuddin, all of them used to play from the stumps, yet Virat Kohli has certain arrogance when he does that. When Lasith Malinga tried to fire in those deadly yorkers, those deliveries were good enough to test the best in the business and yet he made it ridiculously easy. Often your strength brings out your weaknesses which exactly happened during 2014 England tour when he couldn't play the fifth stump line and 4 years later he plays cover drive in the seaming conditions better than any other batsman which just goes to show the skill set that the man possesses.

A real tough guy who was born to bat and to play the great game of cricket is now ruling the cricketing world. It has been a privilege to watch the growth of someone who already has reached a stage where he has earned himself the title of legend with fifty per cent of his career still to be unfolded.