Former Australia captain Steve Waugh on Thursday (9 August) heaped praises on Indian captain Virat Kohli. Waugh called Virat Kohli “big occasion player”. He said the 29-year-old Indian captain and his RCB teammate AB de Villiers had the best batting technique but as the South African cricketer was not playing Test cricket anymore Virat was now the best in the world.

“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,” Waugh was quoted as saying in Cricket.com.au.

Drawing a comparison with legends such as Brian Lara and Vivian Richards, Waugh said Kohli “has got the game to survive anywhere, I think he’s got the best technique of anyone in world cricket.”

“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 5,754 runs in 67 Tests at an average of 54.28. He also amassed 9,779 runs in 211 ODIs at 58.2 and 2,102 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.

-With PTI inputs.