Describing Virat Kohli's innings in India vs Pakistan match as a "song by God", former India coach Greg Chappell rated the former skipper as the "most complete Indian batsman" of his time.
The 74-year-old Australian legend said, "None of the greats of bygone eras could have dismembered an opponent so brutally without compromising the niceties of the art of batting than Kohli did last Sunday night."
In their opening match of the T20 World Cup, Kohli smashed 82 runs off 53 deliveries including six boundaries and four sixes.
"Kohli is the most complete Indian batsman of my time. Only the greatest of champions have the courage and the intelligence to transport their imagination beyond the mortal plane. Kohli has that. Perhaps only Tiger Pataudi has come close to transcending a similar stratosphere," Chappell wrote.
"Kohli played an innings that was as close to a 'song by god' as has ever been played in T20 cricket. Like a cat playing with a new skein of wool, Kohli teased then expertly picked apart an excellent Pakistan bowling attack until it lay unravelled, spent, and exposed on the green carpet of the MCG."
- Chappell further added that Kohli's innings in the high-voltage match "legitimised" T20 cricket.
"It was an innings that showcased the art of batting like no other that I have seen in a lifetime of watching cricket.
"Ironically, it was also the innings that legitimised T20 cricket as, dare I say it, an art form, more than any that I have seen in the past 15 years. Nobody can dismiss T20 cricket as simply entertainment ever again," he said.
- Chappell said only Adam Gilchrist could have come close to Kohli in terms of sheer strokeplay.
"I can think of many of the best hitters in the modern game who could have pulled off a similar victory, and probably have, but none has ever done it with pure batting skills in the manner that Kohli did against Pakistan," he said.
"Only Adam Gilchrist has come close in the past, but this was even more esoteric than some of his most sublime efforts. It was simply impossible to look away."
(Inputs from PTI)
