Ponting says Kohli is the greatest ODI player ever

Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting has hailed Virat Kohli as the best 50-over player he has ever seen.

He believes the Indian superstar is well-placed to become the all-time leading run-scorer in ODIs, according to ESPNcricinfo.

Kohli became only the third playing to surpass the 14,000-run mark in 50-over cricket with his unbeaten 100 against Pakistan, his 51st overall, in Dubai on Sunday. Having already overtaken Ponting on the list highest run-scorers, he is now only 149 runs shy of second-placed Kumar Sangakkara, but still trails Sachin Tendulkar by a remarkable 4,341 runs, reports bdnews24.com.

"With someone like Virat, you never write him off, because I'm sure he'd be motivated by that [achieving the record], I think," Ponting said on the ICC Review Podcast. "Now that he's gone past me and only two ahead of him, I'm sure he wants to give himself the best chance to be remembered as the all-time leading run scorer in the game.

"So, as long as the hunger's there, obviously, physically wise, he's probably as fit as he's ever been and works exceptionally hard on that side of his game. So, if the hunger's still there, then I'm never going to write him off.

Ponting also expressed astonishment at the fact that Kohli still has a fair way to go before eclipsing Sachin's record despite dominating the format for such a long time.

"I know he's nice and close to Sangakkara now. I don't think it's going to be long, maybe the next game before he goes past Sangakkara. But still, a little way to go to catch Sachin."

"Congratulations to him [Kohli]. He's obviously been a champion player for a long, long time. And particularly, probably in the white-ball formats where he's been an unbelievably good 50-over player. In fact, I think I'm on record before saying I don't think I've ever seen a better 50-over player than Virat Kohli."

He continued: "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. How long Sachin played for and how long you're able to maintain such high levels for as an individual player? And that's the one thing I've always judged excellence on, is how long you can maintain it for."