Kevin Pietersen irks twitterati by calling Virat Kohli as 'greatest batsman of his generation'

Indian captain Virat Kohli registered his 20th Test century earlier today during the ongoing final Test between Indian and Sri Lanka at Feroz Shah Kotla. With the century, the 29-year-old skipper also became the fourth fastest Indian to reach 5,000 runs in the longer format of the game.

While Kohli was smashing his way to century, in another part of the world Australian skipper Steve Smith added fourty runs to the Aussie scoreboard in the second day-night Test of the Magellan Ashes. The Saturday turned out to be a feast for the cricket fans as two of the best modern day batsmen were in action, simultaneously.

Interestingly, former England star Kevin Pietersen seemed to have been impressed more by Kohli’s efforts as he took to Twitter to call him the ‘greatest of his generation’. Pietersen’s remark however, did not go down with the Australian fans on the social media platform, as they argued Smith was better than Kohli. His comments attracted more criticism as it comes after an array of Australian legends including Ricky Ponting and Steve Waugh, heaped praise on Smith following his match-winning 141 not out in the first Test.

One of them even predicted that England batsman will receive a lot of flak from Australian fans, given the heated rivalry between England and Australia on and off the field in the ongoing Ashes season.

You can see the tweet below:

Pietersen’s remark comes after an array of Australian legends, including Ricky Ponting and Steve Waugh, heaped praise on Smith following his match-winning 141 not out in the first Ashes Test in Brisbane last month.

Notably, Smith, who started as a leg-spinner, has gone on to become one of the most consistent batsmen in the modern era. However, Kohli dominates limited-over cricket as he averages more than Smith in both ODIs and T20Is.

Here’s how Twitter reacted to KP’s tweet: