IND vs SL: Gautam Gambhir calls Rohit Sharma better player than Ricky Ponting while speaking on air in 2nd ODI

Gautam Gambhir sent shockwaves in the cricketing world when he blatantly admitted to believing that current Indian skipper Rohit Sharma is a much better player than Australian great Ricky Ponting.

Gautam Gambhir has time again been very critical and blatant in his talking and is known to be an staunchly opinionated cricket pundit. There is no doubt that Rohit Sharma is undoubtedly one of the best white-ball batters of the present times, but the question arises if a comparison actually be made between two greats of two different eras.

Rohit Sharma before the last five-six years was not this consistent: Gambhir

While speaking on a pre-match show on Star Sports before the commencement of the 2nd ODI between India and Sri Lanka, the 41-year-old was seen narrating Rohit's ODI records and praising him.

"The surprising fact is that in the last four or five years he has gotten this many hundreds. Rohit Sharma before the last five-six years was not this consistent. He definitely got about 20 hundreds in the last five-six-seven years," Gambhir stated.

Gambhir's sudden comparison of Rohit Sharma with Ricky Ponting was of such high magnitude that it took fellow panelist and former India cricketer Sanjay Majrekar completely by shock.

"You missed that," Manjrekar said to attract the host's attention.

"No, he is a better player than Ricky Ponting. because Ricky has got a sh** record in the subcontinent," Gambhir added.

Looking at the performances of both Ponting and Sharma in the subcontinent, Rohit has an even spread of centuries. Outside the subcontinent, he has 13 ODI hundreds and averages 47, only one less than his overall career average. On the other hand for Ponting, average-wise there isn't much of a difference. The former Australian averages 41 in ODIs played in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. But there is a drastic difference in his century's column. Ponting only has six ODI centuries in the subcontinent out of his total 30.

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