India team manager Ravi Shastri has heaped praise on captain Virat Kohli for his exquisite run of form that saw him make over 500 runs in the 6 ODI games of the South Africa tour. Kohli has always been a great batsman, but he took his credentials to another level with his imperial performances on South African.

Indeed, the true mark of a batsman is his ability to bat on any wicket and given South African conditions, Kohli has more than just done that. Speaking about him, Shastri was particularly pleased with how he got his runs.

“It’s not just about averages, it is the way you get runs, when you get it, and the impact those runs have on what the team does. I would simply say he is the best batsman in the world now,” Shastri declared at the post series media interaction.

That wasn’t all from the former India all-rounder, as he continued lavishing the Delhite with praises, speaking about how his intensity rubs off on the other members of the team.

 “You spoke of intensity. Where does the intensity come from? When you have a leader like that, who leads by example, the other guys jolly well follow. Otherwise they know what to expect. That’s the beauty about this team on this trip where I feel proud as a coach about my boys and the intensity they showed,” the former India captain said.

After losing the Test series 2-0, many thought that the Men In Blue would follow down the same path in the limited overs’ version of the series. That, however, didn’t happen as Indian trumped the Proteas 5-1 in the ODI series, showing a lot of character that has gone down extremely well with Shastri as he gave the complete credit to Virat Kohli—the leader of the pack.

 “Even after being two-zero down in the Test series, for them to show that kind of character to come back and win that Test match in Johannesburg on a spiteful pitch. And to then take that momentum into the one-day series and show the consistency they have shown over the last two weeks is fabulous.

“Entire credit should go to the leader because he has led from the front, first with his batting and then as I said with his intensity, which makes other people in the team also up the ante,” he added.