Michael Vaughan, the former captain of England, has named fellow countryman Joe Root the best Test batsman. However, Adam Gilchrist, a former batsman and wicketkeeper for Australia, continued the same debate by referring to India’s star player Virat Kohli as the greatest of all time. Despite their shared belief that, given his recent form in the longest version of the game, Kohli is the better batter in limited overs cricket, Vaughan backed Root. Gilchrist retorted that Root has never scored a century in a Test match played in Australia.
He also referred to Kohli’s 2018 Perth innings of 123 against Australia as “one of the best knocks in history.”
This is how the entire discussion went:
“In the last little while. Gichrist said on the Club Prairie Fire podcast that Joe Root is the best player England has ever had based on his long-term statistics.
I think, “Virat scored one of the best tons I’ve ever seen in the inaugural Test match played at Perth Stadium; it was definitely different gravy.”
“I wouldn’t argue against that in Australia. “I would say Virat against the Aussies wherever else I go, Joe Root,” Vaughan said.
Root is, in fact, at the height of his powers. Against Sri Lanka in the second Test match played at Lord’s last month, he scored hundreds of runs in both innings.
Root’s accomplishment saw him surpass Alastair Cook as the England player with the most hundreds in Test cricket, with his 33rd and 34th Test hundreds, respectively.
However, Kohli scored his last century in a game against the West Indies in July 2023. Since then, he has only scored 50 runs or more in the preceding four innings.
Kohli has accumulated 8,848 runs from 113 Tests total, including 29 hundreds. Meanwhile, Root has amassed 12,377 runs from 145 Tests at an incredible average of 50.93.
