England prodigy Joe Root speaks of admiration for Virat Kohli, hopes to emulate Indian skipper's success

New Delhi: In what has been one of the most heated debates of present cricketing scenario, it has been difficult to pick a clear winner between India's Virat Kohli and England's Joe Root.

While some former cricketers and pundits go in favour of the ever-consistent Kohli, some prefer to pick the English prodigy.

But now, Root himself has spoken of admiration for Kohli and admitted how he hopes to emulate the success his Indian counterpart has achieved.

“I think Virat is always looking to improve his game. You see his form in white ball cricket. His record has been phenomenal over the last 12 months. In Test cricket, he has already done some special things while captaining the side. He is a great leader on the field and he is a good person to learn from, from an opponent’s point of view as well,” Root said while speaking to BCCI.tv.

“I think he is obviously a fine player. The way he can construct the innings in both white and red ball cricket and make contributions across the three formats, is really impressive. That’s the way I try to do and hopefully I can emulate that and take it forward for rest of the years,” he added.

Root admired Kohli's hardworking character who always looking to improve his game and also lauded the way he constructs his innings in all three formats of the game, which is something Root would want to emulate in his game and take it forward for the rest of the years.

The 28-year-old Kohi was dismissed by England's Moeen Ali on 167 in the morning session on Day 2, missing out on his third double century of the year.

India still managed to reach 455 at the end of 1st Innings, courtesy decent knocks from Ravichandran Ashwin and Jayant Yadav.