• Home
  • Player Stories
  • Sachins Technically The Best Batter Ricky Ponting Talks On Sachins 50Th Birthday

'Sachin's Technically the Best Batter...,' Ricky Ponting On Sachin-Virat Comparisons

image-lguodm21Kohli and Tendulkar (Source: Twitter)

With Sachin Tendulkar celebrating his 50th birthday, legendary Australian cricketer Ricky Ponting has given his take on the unceasing Tendulkar vs Virat Kohli debate.

Tendulkar is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest batters to have ever graced the game, and is even nicknamed as ‘God of Cricket’ by a legion of fans from the sport. Meanwhile, contemporary batsman Virat Kohli has fittingly earned the title of a modern-day great, owing to his consistent match-winning run for India across all formats with equal grace and finesse.

Ricky Ponting praises Sachin Tendulkar on his birthday

Ricky Ponting, a batting legend himself, is currently in India on a coaching term for Delhi Capitals in the ongoing IPL 2023 season. On the occasion of Tendulkar’s 50th birthday, the two-time World Cup-winning Australian skipper was asked to settle the best batter debate between the former cricketer and active player Virat Kohli.

While speaking with Sanjana Ganesan on The ICC Review, Ponting maintained that he still believes Tendulkar is the best batsman he ever witnessed during his playing days. He 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.”

The Australian legend also opened up about the never-ending comparisons between two all-time Indian legends. He stated that it will only be fair to compare the two cricketers once Kohli finishes his international career. Acknowledging Tendulkar’s feat of playing 200 Test matches, he claimed:

“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.”

Ricky Ponting is currently the head coach of Delhi Capitals and would like his team to notch up some more wins this season as they are lagging at the bottom of the table with one win out of their six games so far.