Sachin or Virat; Interesting reactions from Aussie camp

Few of the touring Australian players were asked who they thought was the best among Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli. We had a split jury with half of them thinking that Sachin’s longevity for 24 years and the records he holds are too good to look further, while the other half was all praise for the opposition captain whose bat has been red-hot for a while.

Peter Handscomb was of the opinion that Virat was pretty good across all formats and is very consistent, particularly his drive is too good, said the right-handed middle order batsman. Josh Hazlewood was all praise for Sachin having played for 24 years and 200 Tests. His records speak for itself and they were unreal for him.

Mitchell Swepson, the rookie leg-spinner thought that Virat Kohli at the moment, the way he’s hitting the ball, is a pretty daunting image for an Australian. Matt Renshaw who had a good start to his career last month said Sachin having played 200 Tests, scoring 50 Test hundreds and a great all-round player is the best among the two having dominated the scene for over 20 years.

Left-arm tweaker Steven O’Keefe went on to vote for Virat, who he thought was slightly better than Sachin.

Also read- Steven Smith responds to Harbhajan’s remarks

The Aussies have some stern test in front of them, with the best of Indian batsmen finding a particular liking for the Aussie attacks time and again. Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman were all very severe when it came to playing Aussies and the legend of Virat the Test player started when he scored a fighting Test hundred at Sydney Cricket Ground two years ago. Indians were drubbed in the series, but the matches were closely contested unlike the series scoreline showed.

It needs to be seen how the Australians will counter the Indian captain, who has upped his ante upon taking over the captaincy. Virat has already scored four double hundreds as captain and is on the verge of equalling the record for most double hundreds scored by a captain, currently held by Brian Lara with five.