Former South Africa captain and all-rounder Shaun Pollock has picked India’s two greatest ODI batters in his opinion while he ignored a couple of others.
While speaking during chatshow ‘Cricbuzz Live’ alongside India’s Dinesh Karthik, the pair were asked about their two greatest ODI Indian batters.
Shaun Pollock had no doubt that those two names and promptly had Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli as the two best Indian batsmen in ODIs. Pollock did, though, also mentioned a swashbuckling opener Virender Sehwag in this list, saying that Sehwag who used to shift the momentum in India’s favour early on with his aggressive approach is right behind Tendulkar and Kohli in one-day cricket.
“The only other name I would throw into the equation is, and that’s because of the battles I’ve had with him and the pressure he put us… Tendulkar, Kohli and maybe Viru. Sehwag would just be underneath those two,” Pollock said.
Sachin Tendulkar had retired in 2013 as the leading run-scorer in international cricket and continues to do so with a mammoth 34357 runs scored in a career spanning 24 years; Tendulkar is also the first and only record holder of 100 international centuries.
Kohli, until his drop in the runs a couple of years ago, was considered to break several of Tendulkar’s records. However, the man with 70 internationals century and 23500 runs has gone more than two years without a hundred. With 43 ODI tons, Kohli, 33-year-old, can still go past Tendulkar’s 49 ODI centuries.
Sehwag, on the other hand, was known for his dashing approach at the crease. He scored over 8000 runs in both Tests and ODIs – his runs in Test cricket came at a strike rate of 82 while at 104 in ODIs and 145 in T20Is.
Regarding other aspects, Pollock picked legendary leg-spinner Anil Kumble as India’s greatest bowler while also praising pacers Javagal Srinath and Zaheer Khan; and 1983 World Cup-winning skipper, Kapil Dev, as the greatest Indian all-rounder.
Shaun Pollock is one of the finest pace-bowling all-rounders to have graced the game. The right-arm seam bowler is South Africa’s all-time top wicket-taker in international cricket with 823 scalps in addition to scoring over 7000 runs. He also led his country in 26 Tests and 92 ODIs.
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