Indian captain Virat Kohli is undoubtedly one of the greatest batsmen in the game already, despite being just 28-years-old. And after a phenomenal 2016, which saw him guide India to a series win against West Indies, New Zealand and most recently England, former Australian captain Ricky Ponting said that he is probably the best batsman in the world.
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"Is he 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," The Age quoted Ponting as saying.
Virat Kohli ended the year 2016 with 1215 runs from 12 Test matches averaging 75.93 per match and this included three double centuries. In India's recent series win against England, the Indian skipper aggregated 655 runs at an average of 109.16 -- the most for India in a series against England.
Kohli is currently the No.1 ranked batsman in T20 cricket, 3rd in One day internationals, behind David Warner and AB de Villiers and second in Test cricket, behind Steve Smith. While Ponting still ranks the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara and Jacques Kallis above Kohli, he feels in a few years, Kohli will reach their level.
"Is it too premature to call him the best ever? You can probably say that right now as far as his one-day cricket is concerned. His one-day record is outstanding and probably better than anybody that's ever played the game given how many hundreds (27) he's made, but let's give him a few years yet in the Test series side of things."
"It's too early yet to be taking 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," Ponting was quoted as saying.
Speaking ahead of Australia's 4 Test match series against India with the first Test match set to start on February 23rd, Ponting said that the Australian team needs to get Virat Kohli out of his comfort zone if they are to have any chance of winning the series.
"The one thing about Virat Kohli is whenever there's any confrontation, he does get a little bit outside of his comfort zone. You can see that he gets ultra-aggressive, which may be a good thing for him or maybe good for the opposition."
"We will wait and see what happens. I think he's a similar sort of character to me as well. He wears his heart on his sleeve. He's pretty animated. He's a very aggressive player. One thing I learnt about playing in India is the momentum that the home team can create, you have to try and stop that."
"Someone like Virat, you have to take his boundary-scoring areas away and make him score his runs in different areas or make him bat for a longer time to make his runs," Ponting was quoted as saying.
