World Cup 2019: Brian Lara picks his favorite batsman between Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli

What's the story?

Former West Indies cricketer and one of the all-time batting greats Brian Lara has hailed Indian skipper Virat Kohli in a high regard and has dubbed him as a 'run-machine'. The 50-year-old also picked his favourite between Kohli and former Indian batting great Sachin Tendulkar, citing the latter as his choice.

The background

After leading the U-19 Indian side to the World Cup glory, Kohli broke out into the national team in 2008. From bolstering the batting ranks of the Men in Blue in the early stages of his career to becoming the top-ranked ICC batsman, Kohli has already left a mark in the history of the gentlemen's game.

After initially being named as the vice-captain of India, the 30-year-old went on to become the Indian skipper after former captain MS Dhoni stepped down from the role in 2016.

In what has been a spectacular career so far, Kohli has scored 25 tons in Test matches while scoring another 41 in the 50-overs format. Recently, the right-handed batsman became the second player to score five consecutive fifties in a single World Cup campaign.

The heart of the matter

Speaking at DY Patil University in Nerul, Lara hailed Kohli's batting exploits and dubbed him as a 'run-machine' recently. Picking up his favourite between Kohli and Tendulkar, he said:

“Virat Kohli is a run-machine. But sorry to say Sachin Tendulkar is my choice.The impression Sachin left on the game is just unbelievable, because he sort of bridged that period, where you felt that when Indian batsman leaves Indian soil, Indian pitches, they are not that good. But Sachin Tendulkar was good on every surface and all of the Indian batsman are good on every single surface today, I think simply because they took a page out of his Sachin’s book.

However, the legendary batsman then hailed the current Indian skipper, claiming that he is far above from any other batsman in the world:

But getting back to your question, no doubt there is a huge gap between Virat Kohli and the rest of the world in all forms of the game. Rohit Sharma might have got four centuries in this World Cup, Bairstow or whatever, if you want somebody to bat in T20, T10, 100 balls, or Test cricket, it is going to be Virat Kohli today.

What's next?

Kohli and Co. will face Sri Lanka in their last league stage match in Manchester on Saturday. With consistent performances but no big scores against his name in this tournament so far, Kohli will look to add to his tally of two career World Cup hundreds.