The incredible form that Rohit Sharma has displayed in the last few months has left everyone awestruck. Sooner or later, this level of consistency from the 'Hitman' was bound to lead to comparisons with his captain Virat Kohli. And it has finally happened!
Virender Sehwag, speaking to a cricket website, has gone on record to say that, in certain areas of the game, Rohit is even better than Virat.
"The way (Sachin) Tendulkar used to play, he would tell others, 'You can also play like this.' Now, who can explain to him that there is only one God?
"Rohit Sharma is the same type of player. What Rohit Sharma can do, maybe even Kohli can't. Because, to hit 3-4 sixes in one over or scoring 80-90 runs in 45 balls, I have rarely seen even Kohli achieving that," the former international cricketer said on Cricbuzz.
The enormity of this statement was immediately recognised by Viru's co-panelist Ajay Jadeja who remarked that it is a massive comment. However, many would agree that the former India captain is not wrong about the brilliance of Sharma. He is factually correct in stating that the Mumbai batsman is capable of doing things and has done things which even Kohli couldn't or hasn't.
Take for instance his record in ODI's and T20Is. While Kohli has over 40 ODI centuries, he doesn't' have a double hundred in the same format. Compared to that, Rohit not only has scored a double hundred but has achieved the feat three times.
Even in this year's World Cup, Rohit stunned everyone by scoring 5 hundreds in the tournament while Kohli, despite looking good and getting half-centuries regularly, failed to reach the three-figure mark even once.
However, this comment of Sehwag is bound to leave the Indian cricket fraternity split right down to the middle. The supporters of Kohli would throw all the unparalleled achievements of the current India captain to assert his supremacy.
But the key thing to remember here is that Sehwag didn't say that Rohit is better than Kohli. He merely claimed that there are certain qualities possessed by the Hitman which even King Kohli doesn't' have or, at least, hasn't displayed enough.
This debate is a bit like the one that waged between fans of Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid when they were playing. While Sachin is now almost universally regarded as the better batsman, no one will dare to call Dravid a lesser exponent of the art. Let's hope the two masters playing for India currently remain as prolific as they have been and keep scoring heavily for the Men in Blue.
