'To see his preparation, the way he dominates the game.'
Australia's pace great Mitchell Starc has rated Virat Kohli as the No. 1 team-mate among all the great players he has ever shared a dressing room with.
Starc, rated one of the greatest all-time fast bowlers, says he enjoyed spending time with Virat Kohli during his IPL stint with Royal Challengers Bengaluru in 2014 and 2015, closely watching how he prepares for a match.
Starc has been the standout bowler in the ongoing Ashes series against England, with 18 wickets so far at an average of 13.11 including two five-wicket hauls.
Interestingly, the 35-year-old pacer picked only batters as the best cricketers he has played with, while giving former Australia captain Ricky Ponting an honourable mention.
'These are my top three players that I've shared a dressing room within the same team throughout my career. I'm going to start with an honourable mention for Ricky Ponting. I didn't get to play a lot with him, but played a few games early on in my career to see the great man Ricky Ponting go about his business and got to play in his final Test match, which was pretty cool,' Starc says in the video posted by Kookaburra Cricket on Instagram.
South Africa's A B de Villiers, Starc's former team-mate at RCB, is third on the list.
'But I'm going to go with No 3. I'm going to start with A B de Villiers. I didn't get to spend a lot of time or a lot of cricket with him, but I spent a couple of IPL seasons in the same team as AB.
'Such a phenomenal player. His preparation was second to none. His cricket knowledge was amazing and got to obviously play a lot against him, but was fortunate enough to share a dressing room with AB for a few years at RCB and got to build a bit of a relationship and a friendship with him.'
Starc also hailed Australia team-mate Steven Smith as an 'amazing player'.
'Number 2, I'm going to go Steven Smith. I've spent most of my career sharing a dressing room with Stephen and been fortunate enough to play in pretty much all the same teams as Steve across the years and not had to play against him in a professional game, which is lucky because he's such an amazing player for Australia and really any team he pulls the colours onto.
'He's been fantastic with the way he goes about. He's cricket, whether it be a captain, a batsman in the field, his cricket knowledge has been amazing.'
At No. 1, Starc picked Virat Kohli, saying being in the same team and watching him dominate was unforgettable.
'But I'd have to say No. 1 would be Virat Kohli. In the same couple of seasons that I spent in the changing room with AB, right next door was Virat Kohli.
'And to get to see his preparation, the way he dominates the game, he was captain of that team at the time. So to spend two years playing with Virat was really cool and obviously another guy that I've had a lot of battles against as an opposition through the years and across the formats. But to have that time in the same team was really cool to build that relationship as well.'
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