After Virat Kohli's Heroics, Rival Joe Root Wants Batting Tips From India Captain

After a dream run in 2016 and an impressive start to 2017, Virat Kohli has now moved ahead of the chasing pack in the best batsman category. Couple of years ago, cricket experts had identified New Zealand's Kane Williamson, Australia's Steve Smith, England's Joe Root and Kohli as the four batsmen to watch out for in the future. After the retirement of the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Rahul Dravid, Jacques Kallis and others, the quartet was tipped to dominate world cricket. In a sense, all four batsmen have gone on to achieve significant milestones in the last two years. But through 2016, the battle for batting supremacy boiled down to a Kohli-Root rivalry.

The India captain however, has now taken his game to a new level and is widely regarded as the best batsman in the world. The first India-England ODI offered further proof of Kohli's batting genius, as he took on Eoin Morgan's side even after four of his teammates were back in the hut.

Reacting to the 28-year-old's superlative show in Pune, star England batsman Root lavished praise on his peer. The right-hander termed Kohli has the best run-chaser in the game and expressed his desire of chatting with the Indian in order to get a greater insight into batting.

"He's (Kohli) one of the best at run chases in the game, in fact, he probably is the best at it. His record says he's got 15 hundreds chasing scores down now. I'd love to sit and chat with him, but I've not had that opportunity yet. Definitely watching him go about his business, there is a lot of thought behind it," Root was quoted as saying by The Guardian.

The admiration between the two players is mutual. During the India-England Test series, Kohli had termed Root as an outstanding player.

"Joe is an outstanding player, been very fond of the player and the way he goes about things, he is very positive, always thinks of any situation as an opportunity," Kohli said.

Root on Tuesday confirmed that he will not be a part of the Indian Premier League 2017. The 26-year-old will skip the high-profile tournament in order to spend some time with his newborn son Alfred. The 26-year-old cricketer has reportedly been contacted by several IPL franchises ahead of the upcoming season, but with a hectic schedule coming up next winter, Root has decided to focus on his family instead of playing in IPL.