Australian Test skipper Tim Paine calls Virat Kohli 'best batsman in the world'

Australia's Test captain Tim Paine lauded skipper Virat Kohli and called him the best batsman in the world. The Aussie also recalled his feud with him during the 2018/19 tour. 

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"For Virat Kohli, I've said many times, he seems the type of player you would love to have on your team. He is competitive, he is the best batsman in the world. He is challenging to play against and he can get under your skin because he is so good and he is so competitive. But yeah, for me from where I came from, sharing a feud with him four years ago, He is certainly someone I will always remember," Paine said on the 'Gilly and Goss' podcast.

Earlier, Paine talked about verbal banter with skipper Kohli during the 2018/19 tour and said that Virat's fiery send-offs to Australian players got him fired up. 

"He had given send-offs to a few of our players. I sort of just had enough and thought you also have to stand up for yourself and your teammates and that was one of the reasons I thought, 'no, I'm the captain, it's my turn, I have to stand up and show him we’re here for the fight'," Paine had said in Amazon's docu-drama 'The Test'

Paine, recently, faced a lot of backlash over his comments on Team India. He had said: "Part of the challenge of playing against India is they're very good at niggling you and trying to distract you with stuff that doesn't really matter and there were times in that series where we fell for that," Paine had told news.com.au.

"The classic example was when they said they weren't going to the Gabba so we didn't know where we were going. They're very good at creating these sideshows and we took our eye off the ball."

However, the Australian captain clarified his comments and said that he was asked a number of things.