Ponting’s massive compliment to Virat Kohli after 52nd ODI ton as well as crossing the 14,000 run milestone in ODI cricket.
Ponting’s massive compliment to Virat Kohli leaves World cricket in awe.
Virat Kohli will give himself the “best chance to be remembered as the all-time leading run-scorer” in ODIs, according to former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting.
Only three players in 50-over cricket have scored more than 14,000 runs, and Kohli became the third with his undefeated 100 against Pakistan in Dubai on Sunday. In the list of top run scorers, he has already surpassed Ponting and is now 149 runs behind second-place Kumar Sangakkara, but still 4341 behind the top-seeded Sachin Tendulkar.
“With someone like Virat, you never write him off, because I’m sure he’d be motivated by that [achieving the record], I think,” Ponting said on the ICC Review Podcast. “Now that he’s gone past me and only two ahead of him, I’m sure he wants to give himself the best chance to be remembered as the all-time leading run scorer in the game.
“So, as long as the hunger’s there, obviously, physically wise, he’s probably as fit as he’s ever been and works exceptionally hard on that side of his game. So, if the hunger’s still there, then I’m never going to write him off.
“I know he’s nice and close to Sangakkara now. I don’t think it’s going to be long, maybe the next game before he goes past Sangakkara. But still, a little way to go to catch Sachin.”
“Congratulations to him [Kohli]. He’s obviously been a champion player for a long, long time. And particularly, probably in the white-ball formats where he’s been an unbelievably good 50-over player,” Ponting said. “In fact, I think I’m on record before saying I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better 50-over player than Virat Kohli.
“It’s crazy when you think about it, isn’t it? Just how good Virat’s been over such a long period of time, yet he’s still 4,000 runs behind Sachin. I mean, it just goes to show how good Sachin was, but also his longevity in the game. How long Sachin played for and how long you’re able to maintain such high levels for as an individual player? And that’s the one thing I’ve always judged excellence on, is how long you can maintain it for.”