Ricky Ponting, himself one of the greatest batters in cricket history, has played alongside and against some of the legendary players including Tendulkar. However, in his view, there hasn’t been a better 50-over player than batting Virat Kohli.
Ponting’s massive praise comes right after Kohli scored a record-extending 51st ODI century to steer India’s successful chase of 242 against Pakistan in Dubai in a Group A Champions Trophy contest.
During that innings, Kohli became the quickest in ODI history to complete 14,000 runs and this joined an elite club that features Tendulkar and Kumar Sangakkara.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better 50-over player than Virat Kohli,” Ponting told ICC Review. Now that he’s gone past me (in run-maker’s list) and only two (batters) ahead of him, I’m sure he would want to give himself the best chance to be remembered as the all-time leading run scorer in the game.”
“Obviously physical-wise, he’s probably as fit as he’s ever been and works exceptionally hard on that side of his game. It’s crazy when you think about it, isn’t it? Just how good Virat’s been over such a long period of time, yet he’s still 4,000 runs behind Sachin,” he added.
Kohli currently has 4,085 runs to his name and still 4,341 runs behind Tendulkar’s all-time record of 18,426 runs in ODI cricket.
Kohli is 36 now and has just a few more years left as an international cricket giving him a limited time to surparss Tendulkar.
“It just goes to show how good Sachin was, but also his longevity in the game. But with someone like Virat, you never write him off. If the hunger’s still there, then I’m never going to write him off (to overtake Tendulkar),” Ponting said.
The century in Dubai was Kohli’s latest in a series of top-class performances against India’s arch-rivals Pakistan.
