Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are not quite at their prime but they are still one of the best batters in white-ball cricket. Opposition bowlers always target Rohit and Kohli’s wickets whenever they play against India and rightly so. Between them, Rohit and Kohli have 22,735 runs in ODIs with as many as 76 ODI centuries. Opposition captains know more than half the job is done if Rohit and Kohli are out cheaply. But whose wicket is more important? West Indies all-rounder Kyle Mayers was asked the difficult question.

While most would struggle to find an answer to that, Mayers was rather quick in his decision. He wasted no time in naming Virat Kohli. “I think Kohli, Mayers said in a video uploaded by FanCode ahead of the India vs West Indies second T20I.

The left-handed opener, who is also a handy medium pacer, termed Kohli ‘the best batsman’ across formats. “Any bowler would want to dismiss Kohli, the best player across all three formats,” he said.

Both Rohit and Kohli are not a part of the Indian side in the ongoing five-mattch T20I series. In fact, the modern-day greats have not played a single T20I since India’s semi-final defeat to England in last year’s T20 World Cup. Hardik Pandya has been leading India in all T20Is this year and chances are high it will remain the same even in next year’s T20 World Cup.

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But Rohit and Kohli are still integral parts of India’s ODI and Test teams. They rested from the second and third ODI against West Indies in order to give more game time to players Suryakumar Yadav and Sanju Samson, who are being prepped as backup options if KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer do not regain fitness in time for the Asia Cup and World Cup.

Rohit and Kohli’s forms will be crucial for India in the Asia Cup, slated to begin towards the end of this month and the ODI World Cup at home in October-November. India haven’t won a multi-nation tournament for nearly five years. Their performance in the last two T20 World Cups and the Asia Cup was below par. But things could be different this time around in front of the home crowd.

Mayers was also asked about his heated exchange with Kohli during an IPL match between Lucknow Super Giants and Royal Challengers Bangalore. “It’s great. I think you need to take a chance to get at the opposition, anything you can possibly get out of the game. Being aggressive and having courage shows the willingness to get your team across the line,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Hardik Pandya-led Indian side will be looking to fight back after losing the first T20I by four runs. The second match takes place on Sunday.