Michael Clarke Names All-time Favourite, Best Active Batsman

Former Australian World Cup winning captain Michael Clarke feels Virat Kohli’s hunger for big hundreds is similar to that of the iconic Sachin Tendulkar, who was the “hardest to get out” with a technique which “didn’t have a weakness”. He was asked to name his all time favourite player and the best among active cricketers by the anchor of the ‘Big sports Breakfast’ radio show.

Tendulkar – the all time favourite

Clarke said he can’t recall a batsman as complete as Tendulkar during his playing days. Tendulkar along with Lara, Ponting and Kallis were few of the premier batsmen who ruled the cricketing world during the early days of Clarke’s career.

“Probably technically the best batsman (Tendulkar) I ever saw. The hardest batsman to get out. I think Sachin, technically, didn’t have a weakness. Part of you hoped that he made a mistake,” Clarke told the ‘Big sports Breakfast’ radio show.

Kohli- the best among active players 

He then went on to heap praise on Indian captain First Kohli, calling him the best batsman across all formats among the current lot.

“I think right now the best batsman across all three formats. His one day and twenty-twenty records are phenomenal and he’s also found a way to dominate Test cricket.

“What Kohli and Tendulkar have in common is they love making big hundreds,” he said.

Contrary to tendulkar, Kohli doesn’t have much tougher competitors right now. Most of his contemporaries like Steve Smith, Rohit Sharma, Kane Williamson etc are way below him in terms of number of hundreds and most of them are not best across all formats.

Tendulkar is the only cricketer to have played 200 Test matches and scored 100 international centuries.

He smashed 51 centuries in Tests and 49 in ODIs and holds the record for most runs in both formats 15,921 runs in 200 Tests and 18,426 in 463 ODIs.

He retired in 2013 after an emotional home Test series against the West Indies.

Whereas Clarke scored 8643 runs in 115 Test matches and 28 hundreds to his name. In ODIs, he managed 7981 runs in 245 matches and has led Australia to the 2015 World Cup title.