Ponting Hails Kohli as the Greatest 50-Overs Player He Has Seen

Ricky Ponting, the former Australia captain, believes that Virat Kohli is setting himself up to become the all-time leading run-scorer in ODIs. Ponting is confident that Kohli is positioning himself for this achievement by giving his all on the field.

With his unbeaten 100 against Pakistan in Dubai on Sunday, Kohli became just the third player to breach the 14,000-run barrier in 50-over cricket. Already past Ponting in the highest run-scorers list, he is now 149 away from second-placed Kumar Sangakkara, but still 4341 behind Sachin Tendulkar who sits on top of the pile.

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"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."

Calling Kohli the best 50-over player he has ever seen, Ponting was also amazed by the fact that Kohli is still more than 4000 runs adrift of Tendulkar's record despite being at the top of his ODI game for so long.

Virat Kohli's hundred sealed the win for India against Pakistan

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"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."

Kohli's form has been under scrutiny for a while. He had a lean Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 in Australia where he averaged 23.75 with one century in nine innings. In the two ODIs against England, he managed 5 and 52, while he was dismissed for 22 in India's Champions Trophy opener against Bangladesh. However, Ponting wasn't surprised that Kohli brought his best foot forward against Pakistan.

"Look, I've always said big games equal big names. You need your big names to stand up in those big moments. And no bigger game for India than a game against Pakistan. So, it's no surprise to me that that has happened," he said. "I think it's very much the same as what we would say whenever we play England. Your reputation is forged in what you do in the biggest contests on the international stage.

"And no bigger moment than Sunday night when Pakistan had batted first on a tricky wicket. It needed someone at the top of the order to play a match-winning innings like that. And once again, it was Kohli to get the job done."