MELBOURNE: Former Australian skipper Steve Waugh says "big occasion player" Virat Kohli has the best batting technique among the current cricketers in the world.
Drawing a comparison with legends such as Brian Lara and Vivian Richards, Waugh said Kohli has shown all the traits of a great batsman.
"He (Kohli) has got the game to survive anywhere, I think he's got the best technique of anyone in world cricket," Waugh was quoted as saying in Cricket.com.au.
"He and AB de Villiers have got the best techniques, and AB de Villiers is not playing Test cricket so that makes him (Kohli) the stand-out player.
"And he likes the big occasion like (Brian) Lara and Tendulkar and (Viv) Richards and Javed Miandad and all the great batsmen. They want the big occasion and that brings out the best in their cricket," he added.
Kohli has scored 5754 runs in 67 Tests at an average of 54.28. He also amassed 9779 runs in 211 ODIs at 58.2 and 2102 runs at 48.8 in 62 T20Is.
Kohli blasted 149 and 51 runs in the first and second innings against England in the opening Test to become the seventh India batsman and the first since Sachin Tendulkar (in June 2011) to top the ICC rankings for Test batsmen.