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AB de Villiers puts himself above Tendulkar in ODI batters ranking, places Kohli takes first: ‘I can see the headlines’
AB de Villiers was asked to blind rank some ODI batters while appearing on Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali's podcast this week.
AB de Villiers is widely considered to be amongst the greatest names in the history of ODI cricket batting, but where does the South African great rate himself? This question was answered as de Villiers was put on the spot, asked to blind rank 10 ODI batters of the 21st century, the kind of challenge that is very easy to mess up.
Appearing on Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali’s ‘Beard Before Wicket’ podcast, de Villiers got the spotlight as the pair of English players asked him to rank each batter between one and ten without knowing who comes next, with the stipulation that this was for post-2000 version of the batters.
What followed was an immediate stitch-up, as the first person on the list was Sachin Tendulkar, a player who had split his best years across the 1990s and the 2000s. De Villiers knew he was in trouble as the two England players put him in a tough spot, leading him to quip: “Here we go again, I see the headlines already. If I go 9 I’m in trouble.”
However, despite the 21st century only seeing him in his older years, there was still enough from the Master Blaster for de Villiers to confidently say, “Sachin, 4.”
De Villiers filled out the rest of his top 10, placing David Warner at 10th with a chuckle – not a surprise, given the acrimonious past he shares with the Australian southpaw and their series of confrontations through the 2010s.
De Villiers placed his countryman Hashim Amla just below Tendulkar, and Ricky Ponting just above – but number one was reserved for only one man, as he unhesitatingly placed Virat Kohli at the top of the list, with no arguments from the podcast co-hosts. Kohli, with his record-breaking performances in this century, was the only man who belonged.
However, that is not to say de Villiers didn’t have faith in his own abilities. With the number two slot still open when his name came up, the Protean happily took it for himself, a worthy position for a player with 25 ODI centuries, an average of 53.50 striking at more than run-a-ball.
“Not a bad list,” decided de Villiers after wrapping up his rankings.
AB de Villiers’ full blind ranking of ODI batters post-2000
Virat Kohli
AB de Villiers
Ricky Ponting
Sachin Tendulkar
Hashim Amla
Rohit Sharma
MS Dhoni
Kumar Sangakkara
Babar Azam
David Warner
