Virat Kohli is way ahead of rest of the world: Lara

Brian Lara said Kohli is a run machine, avowing that the India skipper is way ahead of rest of the world when it comes to batting across formats

West Indies batting great Brian Lara on Thursday said Sachin Tendulkar remains his all-time favourite but in today's era, skipper Virat Kohli is the best. Lara said Kohli is a run machine, avowing that the India skipper is way ahead of rest of the world when it comes to batting across formats. "He (Virat Kohli) is a (run) machine. But sorry to say Sachin Tendulkar is my (choice)," he said after being conferred the Doctorate in Science (Honours Causa) by the D Y Patil University in Nerul here. "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, (Jonny) Bairstow or whatever, if you want somebody to bat in T20, T10, 100 balls (cricket) or Test cricket, it is going to be Virat Kohli today, added Lara, who still holds the record for highest score in Tests. Lara, who scored 22358 (11953 in ODIs) in international cricket, said if today Indian batsmen are doing well in away series, it is because of Tendulkar, who instilled such confidence in them. "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," added Lara. Meanwhile, Lara was pained to witness the plight of the Caribbean cricket. The West Indies have already been knocked out of the World Cup semifinal race "We have been turned to a corner. Every country, every sports team goes through a little bit of cycle, but we seem to be in the same position for quite some-time, which is unfortunate."