South Africa pacer Dale Steyn has played down comparisons between Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli.
The comparisons between Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli refuses to die down. And the reason behind it is Kohli’s unprecedented consistent exploits with the bat. Not many would have thought that someone could even get close to Sachin Tendulkar’s records let alone breaking it. However, the way Kohli is batting at the moment, he looks more than likely to break several records of his illustrious ex-teammate.
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Recently, Kohli broke Tendulkar’s record to become the fastest batsman to record 10,000 runs in ODI cricket. Kohli achieved the feat in 205 innings while Tendulkar took 259. Kohli has scored 17 more hundreds than Tendulkar after 208 innings. At just 38, Kohli has scored an incredible 38 centuries in ODIs and needs 12 more to break Tendulkar’s record.
Tendulkar represented India for 24 years and shattered all records possible and set some that still remain. He ended with 34,357 runs from 664 games, including 100 hundreds as well. Tendulkar’s tally of 15921 Test runs remains the most in Test cricket and so does his total of 18426 runs in ODIs.
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And many feel that Kohli has the potential to not only get close to Tendulkar’s records but also break it.
Kohli is currently the top-ranked batsman in both Tests and ODIs.
Not surprisingly, the comparison between the two always crops up. Well, recently, Dale Steyn was asked to pick one between Tendulkar and Kohli. However, the Proteas speedster, who had played against both the batsmen, played down the comparison and reckoned how the game has changed a lot since Tendulkar’s days.
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“The game has changed a lot since Sachin’s days. He was one of the pioneers for getting the game to push in terms of run rate. He was the first guy to score a double-hundred in ODIs. Whenever we played against them in India, he was the one getting a strike rate of 100, while others used to be around 80. However, these days, 100 is the norm. There are lots of Sachins out there today. Kohli is a fantastic player. Had Sachin played in the same gear as Kohli, who is in the best form of his life right now, they would have been the same,” Steyn told NDTV.