Virat Kohli the greatest ODI player, Rohit Sharma in top five: Aaron Finch

Aaron Finch, the Australian skipper, has hailed his opposite number Virat Kohli as the greatest ODI player of all-time. The Indian captain missed out in the Mumbai ODI, but played instrumentals roles in the games in Rajkot and Bengaluru. He scored 78 and 89 in the last two encounters and helped his team win the series 2-1 after going 0-1 down following the 10-wicket loss at the Wankhede Stadium.

Kohli batted at four in Mumbai and came back into his own after he returned to his number three slot. Finch also heaped praises on Rohit Sharma and rated him among the top five batters of all-time. The Aussie skipper said that Virat and Rohit’s experience has been instrumental in India’s success.

“They’ve got Virat who is probably the greatest ODI player of all-time, and Rohit who’d probably be in the top five batters of all-time. They’re exceptional, and the thing with the Indian side at the moment is their experienced players are getting the job done in the big games,” Finch was quoted as saying in the post-match press conference.

Sign of a settled and top-quality order, says Aaron Finch

At the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Rohit went on to score 119 off 128 with the help of eight fours and six colossal hits over the ropes. Adam Zampa got rid of him, but by then India were already on the driver’s seat. Finch was impressed by the fact that in the absence of Shikhar Dhawan, who injured his shoulder, the hosts were able to chase the target without much fuss.

“Rohit’s 100, especially without Shikhar there tonight, for them to shuffle and their two most dominant players to still get majority of the runs is a sign of a really settled and really quality top-order,” Finch stated.

Finch rued not having quality batsmen in Australia’s lower-middle order. In Bengaluru, the visitors managed 63 runs in their last 10 overs, losing as many as five wickets. “In the last two games we have had the bowlers batting for the majority of the last few overs.

Which we saw in Rajkot the damage that KL (Rahul) could do in the back end because he was a settled batter. I think that’s an area we just missed a couple of tricks. Just not having an in batter being in and having faced 20 or 30 balls to get us deeper and get us to the back end,” he added.