Virat Kohli is beyond phenomenal: Sunil Gavaskar

Little master Sunil Gavaskar showered praises for Virat Kohli and declared that the marvelous right-hander is currently the world’s best batsman and “beyond phenomenal”.

Kohli starred in yet another successful chase for India with his unbeaten 82-run effort which saw India mow down the target of 161 in a do-or-die encounter against Australia in Mohali to enter the semi-final stage.

“At the moment, he is got to be the best limited-overs batsman in the world. There is no question about it. There is not the slightest doubt about it because he is beyond phenomenal. He is something else,” Gavaskar told ‘NDTV’.

“Whatever little hair that I have, my hair was standing at attention watching the young genius. It was just mind-blowing stuff,” he said.

Gavaskar said the brilliance of Kohli lies in ability to deliver under pressure. He says Kohli puts the team’s interest above everything else.

“Look at his record when India needs runs or chasing runs. He wins the match for them every single time and it’s a combination of power and timing. It’s a combination of two hands, very few batsmen have this ability to play with both the top and the bottom hand. When he was driving off the top hand, it was phenomenal,” Gavaskar said.

“Look at the selflessness of the man. He was quite happy to allow the strike to his skipper (Mahendra Singh Dhoni) because he knew that the skipper would also make a statement. Lot of times when you play such big innings, you want to hit the winning runs. But there is he is, a complete, total team man. Thank god, he is playing for India,” he added.

The former batsman said that Kohli also should be deserves appreciation for keeping his calm in tense chase.

“When you see him during fielding, look how animated he is. But with the bat, he is a completely different personality. He is very composed, doesn’t let any emotions come in the way,” he pointed out.

Gavaskar also lauded skipper MS Dhoni for using his resources well. The Australians were marauding the Indian bowlers at the start but Dhoni did not hesitate in trying out part-timers and managed to surprise the Australians by introducing Yuvraj Singh into the attack. Yuvi returned with the crucial wicket of Aussie cpatrain captain Steve Smith.

“Dhoni reads what the opposition’s strengths are. He realised that Raina could be expensive against Australia because he doesn’t turn the ball much. This pitch wasn’t affording turn. That’s why he brought Yuvraj. So reading the opposition’s strengths is what the captains need to do and Dhoni does it better than most,” he said.

Gavaskar also appreciated the efforts of veteran pacer Ashish Nehra. He felt Nehra has been very instrumental in India’s performances.

“This team has been gelling into a formidable outfit. It had all its bases covered. Earlier, the death overs were causing problems, India were leaking runs and therefore losing their grip on the match that has now been stopped.

“Generally the last 5-10 overs go for a 100 runs, now I think that’s been brought under control because of Nehra ji. His contribution to this team cannot be underestimated,” he said.