Ian Botham reckons that Kohli and Root have been the best players in the series

After what has been a grueling series in India, Sir Ian Botham has taken the liberty of picking Virat Kohli and Joe Root as the two best batsmen in the series and in the world at the moment. Botham, who himself was an impressive player during his day with both bat and ball has also gone on to state that both Root and Kohli have somewhat of a distinctly similar record in both Tests and ODIs.

“The two best players in the series have been Root and Kohli. They have almost the same record. One thing Virat will want to do is score runs in England. He averages 14 there. So he would want to put that right. He is a winner and wants to put that to bed. Similarly, Root has 11 fifties, but not many hundreds. So these two will be the stand out players in cricket for the next five years, but it’s tough to say who is better, especially after a series in India. They will be number one and two.”

Sir Ian also went on to roll back the years when he used to ask the West Indies players if they were good against their own bowling attack. “When I used to play against the West Indies when they were the best, I used to tell Viv Richards, don’t tell me how good you guys are, tell me how good you will be against your own bowling. The same can be said here. Indian seamers have surprised England. They have bowled good pace consistently and even after rotation. You are very lucky right now. This is one of the best attacks I have seen an Indian side have and it will hold you in good stead away from home,” Botham said.

Botham also went on to state that he would love to have Virat Kohli come and play at Durham being the chairman of the county club. Virat Kohli had stated earlier that he would love to have a stint in England prior to making the tour with the Indians a few months later.

“As chairman of Durham, if he wants to come play for Durham, I can arrange that tomorrow. I would love him to come and play for Durham. I will definitely have a chat with him before I leave. I honestly don’t know how we will fit it in his schedule. It’s so packed. But it goes back to what I was saying that that’s the kind of guy he is, he wants to dominate everywhere he goes. I would not be surprised to see him playing there, maybe for a month or so,” the former England captain said.

Botham also opened up on the Virat-Anderson spat. “I’m sure Virat said things to Anderson as well. It’s a big boys game. There are always mind games being played. What Virat has done is, he has answered with his bat here and he would like to do the same when he comes to England.”