Virat Kohli is the darling of India cricket. While fans love him to the hilt, opponents fear him when he strides onto the middle with the willow in his hand. Some years ago, it was the same with Sachin Tendulkar, who is regarded as the best Indian player to have ever played the game of cricket, and Kohli is often compared with the 'Paaji' of Indian cricket.
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With Kohli becoming a huge force in cricket scoring runs with ease all around the world, comparisons are always going to be drawn. Tendulkar has scored 15,921 Test runs and 18,426 ODI runs, while Kohli is far away from that mark with 4,451 runs in the longer format and 7,755 ODI runs. This comparison cannot be made so early in Kohli's career, to be fair to both the players.
Harbhajan has played with both the cricketers, watched them from close quarters, and the off-spinner rates Tendulkar higher for the bowlers Sachin faced during his days.
"I will place Sachin Tendulkar higher than Kohli because the kind of bowlers he faced were better than what they are now," Press Trust of India quoted Harbhajan as saying.
One cannot help but agree with Harbhajan, as Tendulkar faced some of the greatest bowlers of the world. During the 90s and the for next 10-12 years, bowlers like Courtney Walsh, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Glen McGrath, Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan made batting more difficult compared to today's bowlers.
One does not remember many present bowlers, who can be compared to the above-mentioned players. Besides Dale Steyn, there are not many quality bowlers in world cricket. One does not know how Kohli would have performed against the former greats, but the way he has been scoring runs all around the world with ease, one can assume, he would have done fairly well to earn a good name then as well.
However, Harbhajan did praise Kohli, calling him an intense cricketer, and lauded the skipper for helping India become a strong team in world cricket at present.
"Virat (Kohli) is a very intense cricketer. He likes to take on the responsibility and expects the same from his team. That has really worked well and the team has performed beyond expectations," Harbhajan said.
