Michael Clarke has said that Virat Kohli, with a mountain of runs behind him in such a short span of time, is already the best One-day International batsman to have ever played the sport. 

The Indian skipper, who sits comfortably as the current world no.1 ranked Test and ODI batsman, has now struck 10,385 runs at an astonishing average of 59.68 in only 219 one-dayers after his debut at the highest level in 2008. 

Inspiring direct comparisons with legendary Sachin Tendulkar, who scored 18,426 runs at 44.8 across his 463 ODIs for the country. 

"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 told PTI after India's 2-1 ODI series win in Australia. 

"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."

Former Australian batsman also talked about the great Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who came back from his widely criticized 96-ball 51 in Sydney to score unbeaten 55 and 87 to help the visitors eventually win in Adelaide and Melbourne respectively. The wicketkeeper-batsman was also adjudged "Player-of-the-Series" for his efforts. 

"MS knows how to react to any given situation. He has played 300 plus ODIs so he knows how to go about his job. I think he would have played differently," Clarke further said, "It was 230 and he had a particular strategy and it would have been different if the target would have been bigger."

"Look at his approach in the second game in Adelaide and the third game in Melbourne. It was different. Any position 4, 5 or 6(in the ICC Cricket World Cup). He is good enough to bat at any position and I believe Virat will use him accordingly."