IND vs SL: “Rohit Sharma Was Better Than Ricky Ponting”- Gautam Gambhir Makes a Big Statement Ahead of 2nd ODI vs SL

IND vs SL: Rohit Sharma is among the best batters in modern-day cricket. He has been among the best performers for India for a period of almost 5–6 years. During his career, Rohit has scripted some world records that look impossible to break for any other batter. However, it was not the same case with him in the early stages of his career. He was not consistent enough and was a middle-order batter.

He had only two centuries in 50-over cricket in his first six years of international cricket. But the things changed when the former Indian skipper MS Dhoni decided him to put Rohit up the order and to open the innings in 2013. And since then, he has not looked back. Rohit scored a century in the very first series as an opener in Jaipur. He also became the third Indian batsman to score a double century in 50-over cricket, after Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag.

IND vs SL: “Rohit Sharma is a better player than Ricky Ponting” – Gautam Gambhir ahead of 2nd ODI

IND vs SL: Meanwhile, Rohit is just one century away from matching Ricky Ponting’s tally of 30 ODI centuries. Rohit has 29 centuries in 237 games with 9537 runs at an average of over 48. Ponting scored 30 ODI hundreds and 13704 runs in 375 matches in his career. So is the comparison between Ponting and Rohit feasible? However, former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir has some different views on it. In an interview on Star Sports ahead of the second ODI, he said that Rohit was a better batter than Ponting. Gambhir said,

However, it is also true that Rohit has scored 19 of his 29 ODI centuries between 2017 and 2020. He last scored an ODI century in January 2020, but it has been nearly three years since he has done so. But the stats suggest that both Rohit and Ponting have almost the same average in the sub-continent.

Ponting played 41 ODIs in these conditions and was averaging around 41. But he only scored six centuries out of 30 in Asian conditions. On the other hand, Rohit has equal numbers in the sub-continent and other countries. He has scored 16 centuries in Asian conditions and 13 in other than sub-continental conditions.