When you look at Sachin Tendulkar’s Test career, the stats say it all.
15,921 runs
51 centuries
68 half-centuries
Average of 53.78
But even these huge numbers are not enough to describe his true impact and legacy in Test cricket. He is still seen as the most complete batter of his time and is the benchmark for every young cricketer today. His records may be broken someday but his greatness will always be unmatched. And his ODI numbers are just as amazing.
For a while, it looked like Virat Kohli would break all of Sachin Tendulkar’s records in both Tests and ODIs. But a bad slump in form hurt his Test numbers badly. He finally retired from Tests with 9230 runs in 123 matches, with 30 centuries and 31 fifties.
But former South African legend AB de Villiers believes Virat Kohli is ahead of Sachin Tendulkar in one very important area – performing on bouncy and seaming pitches.
On his YouTube channel, AB de Villiers praised Sachin Tendulkar for starting a new trend. He said Sachin was the first batter from the subcontinent who proved that Indian batters can succeed on fast, bouncy pitches abroad. But he feels Kohli took that to an even higher level and raised the standard.
He also said that because of what Sachin and Virat did, many new Indian players like KL Rahul and Devdutt Padikkal are now following their path and doing well overseas. For your information, 54.67% of Sachin Tendulkar’s total Test runs came away from home, while for Virat Kohli, that number is 51.72%.
AB de Villiers also spoke about KL Rahul. He said Rahul is a very talented batter with solid technique and is very important for India. But his away record is not great – he averages only 34 runs away from home. ABD said this is one area where Rahul needs to improve. He advised that when Rahul gets set, he should not just stop at 100, he should make it 180, because in Test cricket a duck or dismissal against the new ball is always close by. So his main goal should be to turn his big scores into even bigger scores.
Do you agree with ABD?
