Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting believes Virat Kohli has it in him to become the all-time leading run-scorer in ODIs. Kohli scored his 82nd international century (51st in ODIs) against Pakistan in the ICC Champions Trophy clash on Sunday (February 23) and in the process, also completed 14000 runs in the format becoming the third cricketer to do so after Kumar Sangakkara and Sachin Tendulkar.
However, he is the fastest to the milestone having reached there in just 287 innings. In the list of highest run-scorers in the format, he is now only 149 runs away from Sangakkara which he is expected to score during the Champions Trophy. However, to become the all-time highest scorer in the 50-over format, Kohli has to amass 4341 runs more to go past Sachin who scored 18426 runs in 452 ODI innings.
According to Ponting, one should never write off Kohli given the way he batted against Pakistan. "With someone like Virat, you never write him off, because I'm sure he'd be motivated by that [achieving the record], I think. 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," Ponting said on ICC Review Podcast.
Ricky Ponting also called Kohli the best player ever in the 50-over format. He also reflected on how good Sachin Tendulkar was during his time as Kohli is still more than 4000 runs away from him despite being at the peak of his powers in ODIs for so long. "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.
"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," Ponting further added.
