Virat Kohli told Joe Root is better than him as war of words start before India vs England

Cricket: Root says room for improvement after Test win

England Test captain Joe Root is a better batsman than India skipper Virat Kohli and Australia star Steve Smith, according to Graeme Swann. Root hit 426 runs in four innings in the recent two-match series win over Sri Lanka. The 30-year-old moved up to fifth in the ICC Test Batting rankings, one place behind Kohli and three behind Smith.

Root takes his England side to India in a four-match Test series which starts on February 5.

Kohli is back for the hosts after missing the final three matches of the Australia tour due to the birth of his first child.

Former England spinner Swann says Root has underperformed in recent years.

But he believes, heading into the India series, that Root is currently the best batsman around.

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“Even Joe Root would admit that over the last three or four years he has not scored the level of runs and his game has not leapt on in the way that he would like,” Swanna wrote in his Betfair column.

“Steve Smith and Virat Kohli have done that but he was almost left behind slightly, even though in my opinion he is a better player than either of those two. Now it’s all just come together again.”

Swann played alongside Root towards the end of his Test career.

And he believes the Yorkshire batsman is a mix between Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen.

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Swann added: “All the great run-getters are different. I’ve been lucky enough to share a dressing room with a couple: Alastair Cook seemed to just loving batting for hundreds and hundreds of minutes.

“A full day of batting to him wasn’t a big deal, the challenge was to bat for two days. Kevin Pietersen on the other just wanted to score and do it quickly by dominating bowlers.

“Joe Root is somewhere in the middle, who happily bats time but is always looking to stay ahead of the bowlers, and that’s why I think he’s the best we’ve ever had.

“The key to spotting a truly world class player is that when they are in nick, they look absolutely impregnable, and he looks like that at the moment.

“It’s like he’s playing a different ball game from everyone else, and let’s face it, without him, England would have been beaten by a fairly substandard Sri Lankan team.”

“They weren’t though and now Rooty is only one win behind Michael Vaughan.

“I’ve always said that Joe shouldn’t have been captain because it affects his run-scoring and it has, but he’s also made it work and it now seems to be coming together.”

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