Bengaluru, April 13 (IANS): Indian batting legend V.V.S. Laxman heaped praise on star batsman Virat Kohli for his consistency in T20s and termed his adaptability to any situation "phenomenal".
Kohli, skipper of Indian Premier League (IPL) side Royal Challengers Bangalore, struck a quickfire 75 alongside A.B. De Villiers’ 82 which steered his team to a 45-run win over Sunrisers Hyderabad at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Tuesday.
Kohli came into the cash-rich league after emerging as player of the tournament in the recent World T20.
“It was magic. It is amazing to see the way Virat continues to score so consistently for whichever team he plays and whatever position he bats at. It is great to see the kind of level he has taken his T20 batting to; he is one of the most exciting batsmen in world cricket. His consistency and adaptability is phenomenal,” Laxman, mentor of Hyderabad, was quoted as saying by iplt20.com on Wednesday.
The 41-year-old praised RCB’s strong batting line-up comprising Chris Gayle, Kohli, De Villiers, Shane Watson followed by promising youngsters Sarfaraz Khan, Kedav Jadav, Stuart Binny.
“From RCB’s point of view it was good to see AB de Villiers perform like that. He didn’t have a great World Twenty20 and he must be disappointed that South Africa, despite being one of the strongest teams in the tournament, didn’t qualify for the knockout stage,” he said.
“I am sure he wants to make it count in this IPL and this was a great start for him. That is one power-packed batting order that RCB have with Gayle, Virat and AB in top-three and Watson coming in as well. Now they also have Stuart Binny, Sarfaraz and Kedar Jadhav, which make their line-up very formidable,” he said.
Bangalore’s 18-year-old Sarfaraz Khan (35 off 10 balls) played a cameo at the end to help his team cross the 220-run mark.
“I am very impressed with him (Sarfaraz). He is a young boy but the kind of confidence he shows and his body language is really good to see. It bodes very well for Indian cricket to see such youngsters do well against international bowlers at this level. Some of the shots that he played were mind-boggling,” the former right-handed batsman said.
For Sunrisers, pacer Mustafizur Rahman was the most economical bowler with figures of 2/26. Laxman praised the Bangladeshi youngster.
“He (Muztafizur) is one of the most exciting bowlers in world cricket. Since his international debut against India, he has made enormous progress. This is the first time I am spending some time with him and I can see that he has got a lot of confidence in his skills. He has a lot of variations and he knows when to use them. His work ethic is fantastic,” Laxman concluded.