Former England captain Alastair Cook has named current Indian captain Virat Kohli among the great batsmen who have reached the legendary West Indian batsman Brian Lara. Lara is the only batsman in the world to have scored 400 runs in an innings of Test cricket. He has 11953 runs in 131 Tests and 10505 runs in 299 ODIs. In a conversation with the Sunday Times, Cook recalled the 2004 tour when Lara hit a century and put his team in trouble.

Cook said, "I was part of the MCC team that toured the West Indies in 2004 and played the first match. We had a great bowling attack with Simon Jones, Matthew Hoggard and Min Patel." He said, "In a first class match, Lara scored a century between lunch and tea time, which made me realize what a great batsman he is. He was the genius of cricket." Apart from Kohli, the batsmen whom Cook considered close to Lara included Ricky Ponting, Jacques Collis and Kumar Sangakkara. Cook, who captained 59 Tests for England, said, "When I was playing for England, the people who came close to him (Brian Lara) were Ponting, Collis and Sangakkara."

The former opener said that Kohli needs to be kept close to Lara as he runs fearlessly in all three formats. Kuk said, "Now you have to put a name for Virat Kohli in this group, especially in all three formats without Making runs out of some fear. "

Also Read:

Hockey: Udita says "learned a lot from Rani and Vandana"

Rijiju's big statement, says "Elite Athletes will start training after the lockdown is lifted"

Ace Para Athlete Deepa Malik Announces Retirement

This player had created history in the intoxication of alcohol, now caught doing this work