Virat Kohli is from another planet, says England hard-hitter Alex Hales

England limited-over specialist Alex Hales is in awe of Indian captain Virat Kohli and feels the latter is from a different planet. The 29-year-old hard-hitting batsman praised Kohli for making batting look easy under different conditions. The Indian skipper buried the ghosts of his failure in the 2014 series this time by amassing a record-breaking run tally of 544 at an average of 68 even though his team has failed to capitalise on that performance.

Hales played a crucial knock in the second T20I against India at Cardiff to level the series even though England eventually lost the series. A veteran of 56 T20Is, Hales has scored over 1,600 runs at a strike rate of 136 plus and is the only English batsman to score a T20I hundred. Besides, the right-hand batsman also has played 65 ODIs for England, in which he has slammed 10 tons, and 11 Tests.

Kohli head and shoulders above all

Speaking to Gulf News in Dubai where he has gone to train for the upcoming T10 League, Hales said: “Kohli is almost from a different planet at the moment. He is playing a different game even in Test matches in England and on difficult batting pitches, he made it look very easy. I would say he is head and shoulders above all and he does something special in all the matches.”

Hales also praised England Test captain Joe Root calling him “an incredibly special guy”. He said he knew Root would go on to become one of England’s greats ever since he was 19. “He is only 27 now and has nearly 10 years left in him and may probably set some records for English cricket,” Hales was quoted as saying.

Hales, who grew the passion for hitting hard (he had once plundered 55 runs in one over, thanks to no balls) seeing his father slamming the ball at will in local cricket, felt England could win the 2019 World Cup.

“We are on the right path since 2015 and we have played some really good cricket and at the moment we are ranked No. 1 and we probably have a good chance in 50-over cricket,” he said though cautioning that teams like India and Pakistan could throw quite a challenge at England.

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