Ricky Ponting believes Virat Kohli is the best batsman in the world and could be the greatest ever.
Kohli has dominated the one-day format of the game, scoring 27 centuries in 179 matches. Ponting believes although he has a while to go to match Sachin Tendulkar in the test arena, Kohli is already the greatest one-day player.
"Is he the best batsman in the world? Yeah, he probably is," Ponting told Gulf News.
"I thought he was six or seven months ago and he’s probably taken it to another level since then.
"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 he’s made.
"He’ll continue to improve, especially now that he’s the captain (of India in all three formats) as well and his team’s winning."
Kohli boasts an incredible international record, he is the only player to ever hold a battling average above 50 in all three formats.
His test batting averaged surpassed 50 with his double-century against England in the fourth Test in Mumbai.It was his 15th century in 53 matches. By comparison Tendulkar made 51 hundreds in 200 matches.
Ponting said he will be impressed if Kohli can match the longevity shown by Tendulkar.
"Let’s give him a few years yet in the Test series side of things," Ponting continued.
"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 believes that factor alone makes comparisons between Kohli and Tendulkar premature.
"The great thing about Sachin was his longevity in the game," he said.
"To think about someone playing 200 Test matches is quite remarkable and still maintain the standards over such a long period of time.
"I think that’s the difference between the really, really great players and the great players is the longevity and how long they can perform at a certain level for."
"(Kohli) is not the complete, all-round package yet."
