[VIDEOS/PICTURES] Who in your opinion has/had the best cover drive in cricket?

[RedwoodOriginal]

I like Kohli's drive more but that's because I generally love his stance and style of batting.

 

[charlie007]

I like Kohli's drive more but that's because I generally love his stance and style of batting.

I like Kohli’s cover drives but if you notice often his drives are a little away from his body, and hence a little bit riskier. Babar generally plays it closer to his body and I like that better because I feel playing it closer gives him more control.
Tendulkar of course was a master technician.

For many who are so inclined, this is not in any way or form a discussion about who is a better / best player. overall, this is just about the cover drives, so please don’t bring in irrelevant comparisons.

 

[RedwoodOriginal]

I like Kohli’s cover drives but if you notice often his drives are a little away from his body, and hence a little bit riskier. Babar generally plays it closer to his body and I like that better because I feel playing it closer gives him more control.
Tendulkar of course was a master technician.

For many who are so inclined, this is not in any way or form a discussion about who is a better / best player. overall, this is just about the cover drives, so please don’t bring in irrelevant comparisons.

No I absolutely agree with you there. Playing away from the body has historically been one of Kohli's biggest weaknesses. The good thing about Kohli though is that he is flexible about his technique and not set in his ways like alot of batters. It's kinda been a double-edged sword for him in some ways but he has still been able to be successful despite this technical issue by adapting his head-position and trigger movement to the conditions he is playing in. If he's playing in India where there is not as much swing, you'll probably see him play with a head-position outside off stump and an aggressive trigger movement. In England or South Africa, you might see him bat on middle and play with a more limited trigger movement, which doesn't always give you those booming cover drives but it'll get some runs. Point is, he keeps trying to find ways to adapt and keep scoring runs which is not something most batters can do.

Babar and Tendulkar are so technically sound that they never need/needed to really change their technique to play the cover drive. It was/is a natural shot for them. This is why when I think of them I think of batters who could have been successful in any era of cricket.

But in Kohli's case it's his flexibility and adaptability (besides his mindset) that makes him so great. It is definitely the biggest reason why he has been able to become arguably the greatest limited-overs batter in the history of the game. Nobody's perfect though.

 

[FearlessRoar]

While I'm not a huge fan of Babar Azam in T20 cricket, I must acknowledge that his cover drive is technically impressive

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[The Bald Eagle]

In a recent podcast, Adil Rashid was asked about the best cover drive between Virat Kohli and Babar Azam:

Adil Rashid answered: "Babar's cover drive or Kohli's cover drive. I think Babar's cover drive"
"I remember Babar's cover drive over and over again, but it did sound great when it came off the bat. Stylistically, it was better than Kohli."