Former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting believes that Virat Kohli should not be compared to the legendary Sachin Tendulkar.
Comparisons with Tendulkar have always followed Kohli ever since he developed into India’s talisman in the batting department. The India skipper continues to go from strength to strength in all three formats of the game and was in excellent form during the team’s recent Test series where he finished as the top-scorer with 593 runs.
The 29-year-old Indian batsman notched up his 23rd Test ton during the tour while displacing Steve Smith at the top of the batsmen’s rankings. However, Ponting feels Kohli has a long way to go before he can be compared to Tendulkar.
“Comparisons are hard to make at this stage of his (Kohli’s) career. You are being compared with someone who has played 200 Test matches. What you remember about Sachin is when he was finishing off. You don’t remember when he was in mid 20s,” the Aussie was quoted as saying by PTI (Press Trust of India).
Kohli has shown amazing consistency across all formats.
“Everyone is saying exceptional things about Virat now but let’s see if he can dominate international cricket for about 10, 12 or 15 years which would be a sign of a real champion player. Sachin did that in all three formats. If someone can play 200 Tests its incredible. I myself have played 168 Tests but 200 is something else,” Ponting added.
Tendulkar had scored 15,921 and 18,426 runs in Test and ODI cricket respectively while registering a total of 100 tons in all formats. In comparison, Kohli has so far notched up 6,147 and 9,779 runs in Test and ODI cricket respectively with 58 international centuries to his name.