5 reasons why Virat Kohli & AB de Villiers are the Cristiano Ronaldo & Lionel Messi of the cricketing world

De Villiers and Kohli are in the form of their lives at the moment

Two of the best batsmen in the world right now – Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers – are in the form of their lives, and they are reigniting the long debate of ‘who is the best batsman in the world’ with their stellar performances in IPL 2016. The duo, who play for the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL, are redefining the art of batting with their stupendous displays.

Their stature has even drawn comparisons with two of the current football greats Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, who have been mesmerising football fans over the last 10 years. The charismatic Cristiano Ronaldo and the incredible Lionel Messi are undoubtedly the best footballers in the world right now, and it was obvious that some fans of both games would try to compare them with the current cricketing superstars.

Recently when England wicket-keeper Jos Buttler tweeted that watching AB and Virat bat together felt like Ronaldo and Messi playing on the same team, the fans went berserk. But finding similarities between the quartet was not an easy task.

Here are 5 reasons why Virat Kohli and AB de Villers are the Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi of cricket.

1) Consistency

Each of these four players has been an epitome of consistency for their respective teams, and they have nullified the law of the averages with gusto. Year after year, season after season they have kept performing for their teams, and that has really made them stand out from the rest.

If we look at Kohli, De Villers, Ronaldo and Messi’s career average and statistics, we can clearly see that these players have been thoroughly consistent over the years. Barring a few lean patches, they have always been up to the mark.

Let’s have a look at some of the glittering statistics that these gentlemen possess. We are considering assists and goals as the benchmarks in football and average as a benchmark in cricket.

In Football: (records updated up to 22 May 2016)

**Total Career stats of Messi and Ronaldo**
Player	Apperances	Goals	Assists	Goal Ratio	Assist Ratio
Lionel Messi	638	503	209	0.79	0.33
Cristiano Ronaldo	795	543	180	0.68	0.22

One has to keep in mind that Ronaldo started as a winger and later moved to the striker position. Messi too has often changed his role and played in the supportive role as well. But irrespective of their position, these two geniuses have a superlative record for their respectively clubs and countries.

In cricket, AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli have been consistent across the formats and their career averages are perfect examples of that.

In Cricket: (records updated up to 26 May 2016)

**Career Stats of AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli**
Player	Tests	Runs	Average	ODIs	Runs	Average	T20s	Runs	Average
AB de Villiers	106	8074	50.46	200	8621	54.56	209	5151	33.01
Virat Kohli	41	2994	44.02	171	7212	51.51	203	6391	41.77

Even Kohi’s T20I stats are mind-boggling, and if someone looks at his staggering record in chases, he can surely understand the kind of impact the 27-year-old has had over the years. Even the consistency of De Villiers across all formats is a seriously unique feat as he is someone who can adapt to any format rather quickly.