England pacer Stuart Broad joins debate, says Root and Smith are better batsmen than Kohli

England fast-bowler Stuart Broad is the latest to join the debate of who is the best batsman in the world. The lanky pacer, who is one of England's leading all-time wicket takers, believes it is neither Indian captain Virat Kohli nor Australian skipper Steve Smith. According to him, it's none other than his compatriot Joe Root.

While appreciating both Kohli and Smith's talents, Broad couldn't help but rate Root a notch above them. "I’d say Joe Root, but just because I’ve played a huge amount of cricket with him. I know that he makes runs in a lot of conditions, pretty much all conditions, and he has scored runs at really big times for us as an England team. I think when you’ve played closely with someone for that long a period of time, you see a lot of their strengths. He, in my mind, is built up to be the best player I’ve seen because I see him every day," Broad told cricket.com.au.

Not only does Broad believe that Root is better than Kohli, he even reckons Smith is, "The likes of Steven Smith and Joe Root, they have this consistency of every time they go out to bat they’re just desperate to score big runs and that makes them the top of the tree — that makes them the best players in the world."

Perhaps the reason for Broad's rankings are due to a glaring weakness he sees in Kohli's batting. The pacer believe's that Kohli's vulnerability outside the off-stump can be exploited and the opposition is always in the game with a nick around the corner. "One thing about Virat, the only dismissal you feel in the game with is a nick. He’s so strong off the pads and he doesn’t really get bowled a huge amount. In the conditions, we played there, his hunger for runs was just spectacular."