Virat Kohli ‘best 50-over player’ I have ever seen: Ricky Ponting

Australian batting legend Ricky Ponting hailed Virat Kohli’s achievements in white ball cricket and said the star Indian batter is the “best 50-over player” he has ever seen.

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On Sunday (February 23), Kohli scored a match-winning hundred (100 not out) against Pakistan in a Group A game of the ongoing ICC Champions Trophy 2025 in Dubai.

Ponting on high praise for Kohli

This three-figure mark was Kohli’s record-extending 51st ODI ton. During the course of his magnificent innings, the 36-year-old Kohli also completed 14,000 ODI runs, and is third on the all-time list behind Sachin Tendulkar (18,426) and Kumar Sangakkara (14,234).

Also read: Kohli breaks Tendulkar's record, completes 14,000 ODI runs

Ponting, who is fourth on the all-time ODI highest scorer’s table with 13,704 runs, told ICC Review Podcast that Kohli has been an “unbelievably good” 50-over player and congratulated him on his 51st hundred in the format.

“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,” Ponting said.

“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,” he added.

Can Kohli break Tendulkar’s record?

Further, the former Australian captain said Kohli would be motivated to break Tendulkar’s record, still 4,341 runs behind the Indian batting legend.

“With someone like Virat, you never write him off, because I'm sure he'd be motivated by that (achieving the record for most ODI runs), I think. 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,” he opined.

“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. 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,” he said.