Is Virat World's Best Batsman?

In the Indian Ocean, there is INS Viraat - India’s Naval pride. It’s the flagship of the Indian Navy, one of the two aircraft carriers of the country.

- Gaurav Nautiyal

On land, there is another INS Virat: India’s Newest Sensation, Virat Kohli! While “INS Viraat” can carry up to 30 aircrafts, “INS Virat” can carry the entire national cricket team on his callow shoulders as he has so effectively shown time and again on the just concluded tour of Australia and the Asia Cup in Bangladesh. The motto of “INS Viraat” is: Jayema Sam Yudhi Sprdhah. The Sanskrit translation into English of this passage from the Rig Veda means, “I completely defeat those who dare fight me”. That’s the commonality between “INS Viraat” and “INS Virat”.

In a side of ageing maestros, Virat Kohli offers India the flame hope that in him there is at least one potential world class player who is capable of taking the baton from the battle-worn ageing heroes. Nobody doubted Kohli’s talent, but the lack of consistency and conviction at the Test match level had subjected him under tremendous pressure. Kohli is an intense young man. And at times when intensity meets pressure, it has exploded in a fashion that did not meet and societal approval and, more critically, invited the censure of the International Cricket Council (ICC). But when he got his head together and played the most important innings of his fledging career in the first innings at Perth, the importance of that knock was not lost on Indian cricket fans. What they saw was the first emphatic proof that his batting belonged to the highest class at the Test match level.