Australians do not beat around the bush and exemplifying this culture has to be former cricketer Ricky Ponting. He is not the one to mince words. Now that Virat Kohli has made a name for himself, it is only normal there is going to be a comparison made with Sachin Tendulkar.
Humble as the two Indian cricketers are, they play down this question whenever they are posed with it. Precisely, they answer it in a politically correct way.
Recently, Ricky Ponting, the celebrated Australian former captain was asked this question, and with a soldiers bluntness he said, “Sachin is far ahead of Virat Kohli”, this in itself sums it up.
Speaking to Gulf News, he said, “Is he (Virat) the best batsman in the world? Yeah, he probably is. I thought he was six or seven months ago and he’s probably taken it to another level since then”.
But when he was asked the moot question epicentering Sachin, he said, “It’s too early yet to be talking about him being one of the greats. I think the great players we always talk about, the Tendulkars, the Laras, the Kallises, those guys played 120, 130-200 Test matches. Virat’s not even halfway along that path”.
“The great thing about Sachin was his longevity in the game. To think about someone playing 200 Test matches is quite remarkable and still maintain the standards over such a long period of time,” he added.
Speaking of the upcoming India-Australia Test series, Punter highlighted that Virat is the danger man and the most priced scalp for Australia.
The warning signals are out!
Is Australia subcontinent ready or will they follow England’s script?
