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Former England captain Michael Vaughan has made a big statement regarding the stature of Virat Kohli as the greatest player in world cricket. Vaughan took a cheeky dig at Virat Kohli for the huge social media following that the Indian skipper enjoys. Speaking on Spark Sport’s The Show Downstairs, Vaughan also picked New Zealand as clear favourites to win the inaugural WTC decider at Southampton, starting on June 18.
'Virat is famous because he's Indian and has Instagram'
On being asked about the duo of Kane Williamson and Virat Kohli, Vaughan minced no words as he said that the Indian skipper is famous because he's Indian and has huge fan following on social media.
“If Kane Williamson was Indian, he’d be the greatest player in the world, but he’s not because you’re not allowed to say that Virat Kohli is not the greatest, because you’d get an absolute pelting on social media,” Vaughan said.
“I’m not just saying it because I’m speaking to you guys in New Zealand but I think Kane Williamson is up there with the great players across the three formats and he certainly matches Virat Kohli. It’s just he doesn’t have the 100 million followers on Instagram and doesn’t earn the $30-40 million or whatever Virat gets every year for his commercial endorsements.”
The Williamson versus Kohli duel will be one of many battles to watch out for in the upcoming World Test Championship final. The Black Caps skipper is rated as the world’s top Test batsmen in ICC rankings while Kohli is ranked fifth behind Williamson, Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne and England skipper Joe Root.
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