AB de Villiers calls Kohli's ODI form his third peak
De Villiers said Kohli's aggressive approach shows he is thinking about the game differently ahead of the 2027 World Cup.
AB de Villiers said Virat Kohli's current ODI form represents his third peak after strong periods between 2012-2014 and 2016-2019. The former South Africa captain spoke ahead of India's three-match ODI series against West Indies.
Kohli scored an unbeaten 139 off 88 balls in the series opener in Thiruvananthapuram, helping India chase 296 with eight wickets and 8.2 overs to spare. The innings took him past 15,000 ODI runs, second only to Sachin Tendulkar.
De Villiers said Kohli's aggressive approach ahead of the 2027 World Cup shows he is thinking about the game differently. The series continues in Guwahati on Wednesday before the final match in New Chandigarh on Saturday.
CricHubb Take
De Villiers sees the aggression as a deliberate shift rather than a natural evolution. If Kohli carries this approach through the next 18 months, India's middle order gains a different kind of finisher than the accumulators who defined his earlier peaks.