AB de Villiers Not Alone! 5 International Players Who Rated Kohli Above Tendulkar

Ricky Ponting, Virat Kohli, Sachin Tendulkar and Navjot Singh Sidhu [Source: AFP and X]

For more than a decade, the comparison between Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli has been less about statistics and more about what each generation expects from a great batter. Tendulkar became the benchmark against which Indian batting was measured; Kohli arrived in an era where the game was faster, more crowded and considerably more demanding across formats.

That debate has been reignited after AB de Villiers placed Kohli above Tendulkar in the context of Test cricket. Speaking after India's emphatic win over Sri Lanka in Galle, the former South African batter acknowledged Tendulkar's pioneering contribution but argued that Kohli eventually pushed India's overseas batting standards even higher.

However, the South African is hardly the first international cricketing voice to put Kohli ahead of Tendulkar. Over the years, several former players have arrived at the same conclusion, but for remarkably different reasons.

1. James Anderson Found Kohli More Difficult To Bowl To Than Tendulkar

Few people are better qualified to make this particular comparison than James Anderson. The former England great spent almost two decades bowling against India's finest batters. 

He faced Tendulkar during one phase of the legendary batter's career and encountered Kohli across the latter's transformation from a talented youngster into one of the defining batters of his generation.

Anderson's verdict was therefore based not on reputation, but on what it actually felt like to have the ball in his hand.

“I have found it more difficult to bowl to Kohli than even Sachin Tendulkar,” Anderson said on the talkSPORT podcast.

“I had some success early against Kohli, the first time he came to England in 2014. I really exploited his weakness of outside off-stump, and then the next time I played against him – he had obviously gone back and worked on that – he was totally a different player,” Anderson recalled.

“Against Sachin, for example, I didn’t feel like there was that sort of shift in dominance. With Kohli, there was definitely a shift.”

Anderson had dismissed Tendulkar nine times in Tests and Kohli seven times, giving him a uniquely personal vantage point. For James Anderson, though, in other words, Tendulkar presented a formidable technical challenge. Kohli eventually became a psychological one too.

2. Steve Harmison Put Kohli Above Tendulkar As The Greatest Of His Era

Steve Harmison went even further than simply picking one batter over another. The former England fast bowler named Kohli the greatest cricketer of the last two to three decades, excluding Shane Warne and that meant placing him above Tendulkar.

“I put Virat Kohli at number one over Sachin Tendulkar, and that would raise a lot of eyebrows,” Harmison said on talkSPORT Cricket.

His reasoning was less about individual batting records and more about the environment in which Kohli built his career.

According to Harmison, modern cricket placed an extraordinary set of demands on its biggest stars. Kohli had to operate across three formats, cope with relentless media attention, deal with the enormous commercial machinery surrounding international cricket and remain at the centre of India's sporting spotlight for more than a decade.

“Virat’s had to have deal with a hell of a lot more off the field stuff that would affect him on the field,” Harmison added. So, while Sachin Tendulkar remains the statistical giant of Indian cricket, Harmison's definition of greatness allowed Kohli to leapfrog him.

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3. Sunil Gavaskar Called Kohli The Greatest ODI Batter Ever

If there was one person who could make the Tendulkar-Kohli debate particularly uncomfortable, it was Sunil Gavaskar. After all, Gavaskar himself is one of the pillars of Indian batting history. He was the first batter to score 10,000 Test runs and spent years occupying the position that Tendulkar would later inherit.

Yet, when Kohli moved beyond Tendulkar's ODI century record, Gavaskar was unequivocal about where he believed the former India captain stood in one-day cricket.

“It’s not just me. Those who have played with him and against him all agree that he is the greatest in the one-day format,” Sunil Gavaskar said.

The significance of that statement lies in the format. Tendulkar's ODI career was extraordinary. 18,426 runs, 49 centuries and a longevity that helped redefine what was possible in one-day cricket. Kohli eventually surpassed the century mark that had once seemed almost untouchable.

Gavaskar's argument was therefore built around a combination of consistency, longevity and performance under pressure.

“Sachin has been right up there with 51 hundreds, but when you pass the great Sachin Tendulkar, then you know where you stand. It’s almost lonely at the top at the moment.”

He did not diminish Tendulkar to elevate Kohli. Instead, he treated surpassing Tendulkar as the ultimate confirmation of just how extraordinary Kohli's ODI career had become.

4. Ricky Ponting Called Kohli The Best 50-Over Player He Had Ever Seen

Ricky Ponting's endorsement carries a different kind of weight. The former Australia captain was himself one of the most successful ODI batters in history. He finished with 13,589 ODI runs and 30 centuries, while playing a central role in Australia's domination of world cricket.

So when Ponting called Kohli the best 50-over player he had seen, he was effectively putting Kohli above an entire generation of elite ODI performers.

“I don't think I've ever seen a better 50-over player than Virat Kohli,” Ponting said.

That statement came despite Ricky Ponting openly acknowledging the enormous statistical gap between Kohli and Tendulkar in overall ODI runs.

At the time, Kohli was still more than 4,000 runs behind Tendulkar's record. And that actually strengthened Ponting's argument.

“It’s crazy when you think about it, isn’t it? Just how good Virat's been over such a long period of time, yet he's still 4,000 runs behind Sachin. I mean, it just goes to show how good Sachin was, but also his longevity in the game.”

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Tendulkar's longevity was almost impossible to comprehend. But Ponting judged excellence by another measure, that is, how consistently a player could maintain an elite level. Kohli's ability to do that in the 50-over format was what stood out to him.

5. Navjot Singh Sidhu Rated Kohli Above Tendulkar, Gavaskar And Dhoni

Navjot Singh Sidhu did not merely choose Kohli over Tendulkar. He chose him over almost every major Indian batting icon. In 2024, ahead of the IPL season, Sidhu was asked to compare the great Indian batters across generations. His answer included Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni and Kohli.

“I have rated Kohli as the best Indian batter ever,” Sidhu shared.

But Sidhu's reasoning was perhaps the most modern of all five endorsements. He argued that previous Indian batting greats largely belonged to particular eras or formats, whereas Kohli had successfully adapted to all three international formats.

“If you look at four, I would rate him as the best because he has adapted to all three formats,” Sidhu said.

Gavaskar dominated the 1970s and 1980s. Tendulkar became the defining batter of the 1990s and 2000s. Dhoni became India's great finisher and captain of the following generation.

Kohli, Sidhu believed, inherited elements of all those eras while having to survive in a game that demanded excellence in Tests, ODIs and T20Is simultaneously.

Sidhu also brought fitness into the discussion. “In the same way, his technical ability and the fittest of all of them. If you look at all four, he would be the fittest. The longevity factor, gives him a plus. The adaptability factor is Sone Pe Suhaaga.”

Kohli did not have to become a copy of Tendulkar to succeed after him, as per Sidhu he had to create a version of greatness suited to an entirely different cricketing world, and he has done exactly that.

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