Kohli can be the best after Sir Don Bradman: Sangakkara

Many cricketing greats have backed Virat Kohli to do incredible things in the world of batting but Kumar Sangakkara's latest comments about the India captain promises to garner a lot of attention. Sangakkara, the former Sri Lanka captain believes Kohli has the potential to be the greatest after Don Bradman.

Despite playing just one format, Bradman is widely regarded as the greatest batsman of all time – his outstanding Test average of 99.94 is highly unlikely to ever be duplicated. Kohli, on the other hand, is one of the best modern-day batsmen going around, averaging over 50 in all three formats. Not yet 32, Kohli has almost 12000 ODI runs, and with 43 centuries, the India captain is likely to surpass Sachin Tendulkar as the leading century-maker in ODIs.

Kohli's insatiable hunger for runs, coupled with his tremendous fitness levels is what has convinced Sangakkara to believe he can go past the Don.

"Virat is phenomenally fit. I know, and I have seen and heard of his amazing commitment and dedication to being the best that he can be, both on and off the field – physically, mentally and skill-wise. He has the opportunity to become maybe the greatest after the Don," Sangakkara said on The RK Show.

"He's a rare breed among cricketers. Inspiration wise, one of the best I've ever watched in my life, across every format. What I like the most about Virat is his passion, his personality and the fact that he is not scared to show his emotions visible on the field - whether he's captaining the side or he's just fighting a line battle, trying to get India to win. He's an old-fashioned cricketer. Not too many high-fancy shots, but deadly effective."

Not long ago, New Zealand captain Kane Williamson had something similar to say for Kohli. Williamson envisioned Kohli entering the best phase of his career and backed the India skipper to go full throttle in international cricket.

"You can say that it was only a matter of time before he was making some strong inroads to the full international scene. At the moment, leading the way in cricket and setting the standard as a batter and breaking all these records," the New Zealand skipper had said on the Cricket Connected Show on Star Sports.

"A lot of that probably has to come down to his maturity, his ability to make very good decisions. Not only is he gifted with his ability and his natural ability, but you're marrying that up with this constant drive and hunger to improve and just be better day in and day out."