It’s a never-ending debate. Who is the greatest ODI batter? Sachin Tendulkar? Ricky Ponting? Viv Richards? Virat Kohli? Or someone else? However, for the legendary Australian Ponting, there’s a clear winner.

Ponting, himself one of the greatest batters in cricket history, has played alongside and against some of the legendary players including Tendulkar. However, in his view, there hasn’t been a better 50-over player than batting superstar Kohli.

Ponting’s massive praise comes right after Kohli scored a record-extending 51st ODI century to steer India’s successful chase of 242 against Pakistan in Dubai in a Group A Champions Trophy contest.

During that innings, Kohli became the quickest in ODI history to complete 14,000 runs and this joined an elite club that features Tendulkar and Kumar Sangakkara.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better 50-over player than Virat Kohli," Ponting told ICC Review. Now that he’s gone past me (in the gun-maker’s list) and only two (batters) ahead of him, I’m sure he would want to give himself the best chance to be remembered as the all-time leading run scorer in the game."

“Physical-wise, he’s probably as fit as he’s ever been and works exceptionally hard on that side of his game. It’s crazy when you think about it, isn’t it? Just how good Virat’s been over such a long period, yet he’s still 4,000 runs behind Sachin," he added.

Kohli currently has 4,085 runs to his name and is still 4,341 runs behind Tendulkar’s record of 18,426 runs in ODI cricket.

Kohli is 36 now and has just a few more years left as an international cricket giving him a limited time to surpass Tendulkar.

“It just goes to show how good Sachin was, but also his longevity in the game. But with someone like Virat, you never write him off. If the hunger’s still there, then I’m never going to write him off (to overtake Tendulkar)," Ponting said.

The century in Dubai was Kohli’s latest in a series of top-class performances against India’s arch-rivals Pakistan.

“Yeah, 2022 (T20 WC) and now, he stood up against the team that he would probably steel himself the most to play against. When Pakistan had batted first on a tricky wicket, it needed someone at the top of the order to play a match-winning innings like that," Ponting said.

“Once again, it was Kohli to got the job done. He’s been a champion player for a long, long time. And particularly in the white-ball formats, where he’s been an unbelievably good 50-over player," he added.