‘Let’s wait until Virat’s Career’s over’ – Former Australia skipper draws parallel between Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar

Legendary India batter Sachin Tendulkar is celebrating his 50th birthday on Monday, April 24. Tendulkar who represented India for almost two and a half decades has made thousands of records. His amazing batting abilities and consistency helped India clinch some memorable victories during his stint. However, in recent times Star India batter Virat Kohli has filled his shoes.

Kohli in his more than a decade-old career has made several records that led fans to draw a parallel between him and Sachin. However, this never-ending debate has always helped Indian cricket to grow. Sachin who holds the record for the highest number of centuries in international cricket is being trailed by Kohli. Meanwhile, speaking about this never-ending debate former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting picked Tendulkar over Kohli.

While speaking on a cricket show Ponting said, “I’ve said forever Sachin’s technically the best batter that I’ve ever seen, and played with or against. Whatever plan that we came up with as a bowling group, he found a way to combat it, whether it was in India or Australia. It’s hard to rank and judge players as everyone is different and everyone plays the game differently. But certainly, through the generation that I played, he was technically the best player that I saw.”

“Virat’s got all that ahead of him just yet”, says Ricky Ponting

The former Australian cricketer further said that it is nothing short of an “unbelievable feat” that Tendulkar has played 200 Test matches for Team India. Ponting also talked about Kohli’s parallels and stated that the two sporting legends could be compared once Kohli retires from international competition.

Ponting said, “Regardless of how many runs you make, how many hundreds you make, to be physically good enough and have a skillset set good enough to stand up and play 200 Test matches is amazing. Virat’s got all that ahead of him just yet. He’s an unbelievably good player, there’s no doubt about that. He’s got over 70-odd international hundreds now. Sachin made a 100, didn’t he? Let’s wait until Virat’s career’s over and then I think it’ll a much fairer comparison.”

Tendulkar has represented India in almost half a dozen World Cups as he was an integral part of the Indian squad which clinched the World Cup in 2011. Sachin Tendulkar in his career has scored more than 35000 runs in international cricket including 100 centuries. He played 200 Test Matches before retiring against West Indies in 2013.