It’s a never-ending debate. Who plays cover drive the best among the current lot of cricketers? Is it Virat Kohli? Joe Root? Steve Smith? Babar Azam?
Depending on which batting star one idolises, the answer could vary. However, former England cricketer Ian Bell, himself known for playing sumptuous cover drives, has picked a clear winner who is hard to look past: Kohli.
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“It’s very hard to look past Virat Kohli, that is for sure. Not just his cover drive, but the way he plays, his desire for batting, his desire actually in competition and how he goes about his cricket,” Bell was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
Bell is quite enamoured by how Kohli approaches his game and reveals he encourages his cricket loving kids to watch the India superstar go about his business as much as possible.
“When he plays his cover drive, whatever format of the game, it’s a good one to watch. You know, my kids who love cricket, I certainly get them watching as much cricket from Virat Kohli as possible,” Bell said.
T20 cricket is has gained popularity with few former cricketers claiming that the two other formats – Test and ODI – have fallen down the pecking order.
While England’s white-ball revolution has brought them success in the form of two world titles in the past five years or so but Bell claims it has had a negative impact on their Test batters with averages dropping barring Joe Root.
“The next generation of players are growing up with a big diet of T20 cricket in early age and have a look at cricket in England at the moment, there’s a lot of short format cricket in the early age group,” he said.
England are also dealing with the massive challenge to fill the enormous holes in their Test setup left by the retirements of fast bowling duo of James Anderson and Stuart Broad in the past 12 months.
Bell reckons finding their replacements will be difficult and cited the example of how Australia had to recalibrate following the retirements of Glenn McGrath and Shane Warner.
“It’s very difficult for any players to come in and emulate straight away what Broad-Anderson have done for England for such a long time,” he said.
“It’s probably very similar to when (Shane) Warne and (Glenn) McGrath finished at the same time for Australia. It took a little bit of time for Australia to adapt and adjust. It’s unfair for anyone who’s to follow in those shoes to be seen in the same way. Hopefully people don’t get too hard on them too much,” he added.
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