Former India opener Gautam Gambhir has sent shockwaves across the cricketing community thanks to his comparison of legendary Ricky Ponting with current India captain Rohit Sharma’s batting in ODI cricket.
There is no doubt that Rohit Sharma is one of the best batters in ODI cricket and his record speaks for himself with 9537 runs in 236 ODIs with 29 centuries at an average of 48.90 which include three double-centuries and the best score of 264.
On the other hand, legendary Ricky Ponting played 375 ODIs from 1995-2012 and scored 13704 runs at an average of 42.03 and the best score of 164. He hit 30 centuries and 82 half-centuries. Apart from this, he led Australia to World Cup glory in 2003 and 2007 as captain.
Gambhir, while talking on Star Sports before the start of the second ODI between India and Sri Lanka in Kolkata, compared Rohit Sharma with Ricky Ponting and added that Sharma was a better batter in ODIs than the Australian legend.
"The surprising fact is that in the last four or five years he has gotten this many hundreds. Rohit Sharma before the last five-six years was not this consistent. He definitely got about 20 hundreds in the last five-six-seven years," Gambhir said on Star Sports.
Rohit has indeed scored as many as 19 ODI hundreds in just five years between 2017 and 2020. In fact, his last century came back in January 2020 against Australia.
Fellow panelist Sanjay Manjrekar was shocked at the sudden comparison made by Gambhir and said to the host: "You missed that.”
"No, he is a better player than Ricky Ponting. because Ricky has got a sh*t record in the subcontinent," Gambhir added.
Ponting averaged 41 in ODIs played in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, but the difference comes in the number of centuries he scored, as he managed only 6 tons in the subcontinent.
At the same level, Rohit Sharma has 13 ODI centuries outside the subcontinent and averages 47, only one less than his overall career average.
