Virat Kohli the all-time best batsman, not Sachin Tendulkar: Ex-Pak pacer Sarfaraz Nawaz

Indian captain Virat Kohli has already garnered much recognition from all quarters of the cricketing fraternity. The prolific run-scoring machine now seems to have found another admirer in the form of legendary Pakistani pacer Sarfaraz Nawaz. Nawaz, who represented Pakistan between 1969 and 1984 in 55 Tests and 45 ODIs, bagged 240 international wickets and was an instrumental figure for his country’s historic series win over India in 1978-79.

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Sarfaraz Nawaz showers words of admiration for Virat Kohli

Sarfaraz Nawaz was recently involved in an interview with The Indian Express. In the interview, the 71-year old discussed about newly appointed captain Babar Azam along with the future of Pakistan cricket. While he was praising former West Indies batsman Gordon Greenidge for his intelligent batting skills, the legendary pacer stated that it is the Indian captain Virat Kohli who is actually the greatest batsman the game has ever seen.

Nawaz later went on to compare Virat Kohli with India’s batting icon Sachin Tendulkar himself. He expressed confidence that the current Indian captain will surpass the ‘Master Blaster’ on all fronts. The pacer commended Virat Kohli’s abilities with the bat by saying that he has no flaw in his batting. On the other hand, he was of the opinion that Sachin Tendulkar was weak against inswinging deliveries during his playing days.

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Sachin Tendulkar records

Even though Sarfaraz Nawaz praised Virat Kohli over Sachin Tendulkar, the Indian captain still has a long way to go in catching up some staggering batting records set by the latter. Having made his international debut in 1989 as a 16-year old, Sachin Tendulkar remained one of the mainstays of the Indian batting line-up until his retirement in 2013. During his 24-year international journey, the Mumbai-based batsman amassed 34,357 international runs across 200 Tests, 463 ODIs and one T20I to lead all-time run-scoring charts.

Tendulkar’s 100-century tally also makes him the highest century-maker of all time. He is currently 29 centuries ahead of second-placed Ricky Ponting (71) and 30 tons ahead of contemporary batsman Virat Kohli (70).

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