Hobart: England pacer Stuart Broad picked teammate Joe Root ahead of Indian Test skipper Virat Kohli and Australian Steve Smith as world’s best batsman.
Broad said that Root’s ability to score runs in all conditions makes him a better batsman than Kohli and Smith.
“I’d say Joe Root, but just because I’ve played a huge amount of cricket with him. I know that he makes runs in a lot of conditions, pretty much all conditions, and he has scored runs at really big times for us as an England team,” Broad was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au when asked to evaluate the three batsmen.
“I think when you’ve played closely with someone for that long period of time you see a lot of their strengths. He in my mind is built up to be the best player I’ve seen because I see him every day.”
Root, 25, has been the highest run-scorer in Tests in 2016 with 1,477 runs at an average of 49.23 from 17 Tests. Kohli, on the other hand, has amassed 1,215 runs in 12 Tests in 2016 at 75.93.
Australian skipper Smith has 914 runs to his name in 11 Tests in 2016 at 60.93.
Kohli made 655 runs in five Tests against England in the recently concluded five-match Test series. Broad said Kohli’s hunger for runs is spectacular.
“One thing about Virat, the only dismissal you feel in the game with is a nick. He’s so strong off the pads and he doesn’t really get bowled a huge amount. In the conditions we played there, his hunger for runs was just spectacular,” Broad said.
“The likes of Steve Smith and Joe Root, they have this consistency every time they go out to bat they’re just desperate to score big runs and that makes them the top of the tree – that makes them the best players in the world.”
