The former Australia captain Michael Clarke recently in an interview gave his verdict on who he thinks is the best player in the world currently. The former Australian cricketer ahead of the first ODI against India said that he feels Virat Kohli is a better ODI batsman while he credited Steve Smith as a better Tests batsman.
Virat Kohli has been in sensational form in the fifty over the format of the game scoring his 30th century in the recently concluded Sri Lanka series equaling Australian legend Ricky Ponting’s record with only Sachin Tendulkar ahead of him with 49 ODI centuries.
On the other hand, Australian skipper Steve Smith is a consistent scorer for the Australian scoring tons of runs in different conditions across the world. On comparing who is better, Clarke said, “Virat is a better ODI batsman but just about that. Smith perhaps is better in the longer format. In terms of captaincy, both are equal and they are improving. At the moment, Virat is on top as his team is winning. But again, irrespective of the number of runs you score, what matters is whether your team is winning matches or not.”
Unlike other cricketing greats, Michael Clarke didn’t agree that this is the weakest Australian team to tour India. When asked about the same, Clarke’s sense of humor was clear as he came up with the wittiest reply. He said, “I am silly but I am not that silly to give you a front-page headline for tomorrow”s newspaper!” On a serious note, “I think the Australian team has huge potential and it”s time they change this potential into consistent performance. You look through this team; there are a lot of match winners. They just need to work out the best way to go about as a team. So at the end of the day, individual performance is as important as the team”s overall for winning the game,” the former Aussie captain mentioned.
Clarke heaped a lot of praise on former India captain Sourav Ganguly for creating an environment of being aggressive and never taking the backseat. He also pointed out that Virat is also an aggressive captain and has no fear to lose a game which makes him even better.
Clarke feels this series will be of huge significance and the Australian team will have to decide on how they want to approach the 2019 World Cup. “I think it”s time for the Australian team to really decide how they want to approach 2019 World Cup. The likes of Smith, David Warner, the support staff; they”ve got to work towards finding what is the right technique and style for these players,” Clarke who is currently in India on commentary duty for the India Australia series concluded.
