Warne on Tendulkar and Kohli: The legendary leg-spinner was vocal about who the better batsman is among the two Indian stalwarts.
The debate of who out of Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar and current India captain Virat Kohli is the better batsman has been doing the rounds for a while now. The more the latter scores, the more intense is the argument.
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Going by numbers and averages, the rate at which Kohli is achieving milestones at the highest level, he looks likely of overdoing Tendulkar across formats provided he continues to play the game.
Whether Kohli does the same or not will only be known in the years to come. But respective fans of both the Indian stalwarts don’t wait for years to pass their verdict. Do they?
Warne on Tendulkar and Kohli
In a recent interview The Times of India, former Australia cricketer Shane Warne was vocal about both the individuals. Warne started by saying that it is very hard to judge between the two batsmen.
“Very hard to judge when someone is playing and very hard to judge eras. Think about the bowlers in the ’90s. Different surfaces that seamed. Now they’re a lot flatter. The ball swung more. So many invariables.
“But to think that someone was better than Brian Lara and Sachin – in those mid-’90s – against Wasim, Waqar, Curtly, Courtney, McGrath, Donald, Saqlain, Mushy, Vettori, Murali, myself. You can go on,” Warne was quoted as saying.
Warne lauded Kohli for breaking several records at the highest level. The 49-year old ended up comparing him to former West Indies captain Vivian Richards. However, he concluded by saying that he will judge him at the end of his career.
“Virat is breaking all the records, which is great but I want to wait. See, what people miss is this: You can set benchmarks, score those many centuries, average that high, score a lot many runs. But what people are going to remember you for is the way you played the game. Someone should run down the street and ask fans, how many runs did Mark Waugh make or what his average was? They wouldn’t have a clue but chances are, here’s what they’ll say: I loved watching him play.
“To my mind, what’s already evident is that Virat is one of the best players of all time. In One-dayers, he probably has to go down with Viv Richards as the greatest ever, not so much for the record but for the way he plays his game. But I’ll judge him at the end of his career,” Warne said.
