ONE-DAY WONDER

Kohli is the greatest ODI batsman, says Clarke

97.98 Kohli’s average in successful chases. He has scored 4,899 runs in 81 matches. Only M.S. Dhoni has better average (103.07) than Kohli.

You have to respect Virat’s passion to win games for his country. — MICHAEL CLARKE, Ex-captain, Australia

New Delhi, Jan. 20: That Virat Kohli is destined to be among the pantheons of all-time greats is an oft-repeated assertion but for former Australia captain Michael Clarke, the India skipper is already the “greatest ODI batsman to have ever played the game”.

Kohli, the world’s no.1 Test and ODI batsman, led India through a historic tour of Australia, during which the team won the Test and ODI rubbers and drew the

T20 International series. Kohli’s India was the first team ever not to lose any series Down Under and along the way, he continued to add to his rapidly-rising count of international hundreds.

“To me, Virat Kohli is the greatest batsman to have ever played one-day cricket. I have no doubts after seeing what he has achieved for India,” Clarke, himself a former World Cup-winning captain, said.

Kohli has already scored 10,385 runs in 219 ODIs with an astounding average of 59 plus, including 39 hundreds. An unabashed Kohli fan, Clarke said that the 30year-old Indian’s passion is unmatchable.

“You have to respect Virat’s passion to win games for his country. Yes, he has aggression but no one can question his commitment, how much he has achieved. He is the greatest in ODIs,” Clarke said.

While Kohli’s craft continues to evoke awe, his predecessor Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s current form has the cricketing world divided. Dhoni’s style of batsmanship in ODIs, no longer as aggressive as it used to be, has been a matter of concern but for Clarke, the 37-year-old former India captain should be left alone to play his game.

“MS knows how to react to any given situation. He has played 300 plus ODIs so he knows how to go about his job,” Clarke said. But would Dhoni have been as effective as he was in the third ODI against Australia if the target would have been 330 instead of 230? “I think he would have played differently. It was 230 and he had a particular strategy and it would have been different if the target would have been bigger,” he said.

10 Number of centuries Kohli requires to equal Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 49 tons in ODIs.