Former Indian opener calls Rohit Sharma a better player than Ricky Ponting

Rohit Sharma, Ricky Ponting (Source: Twitter)

Indian captain Rohit Sharma scored a magnificent 83 off 67 balls in the first ODI against Sri Lanka to give a blazing start to the Indian team. The star batter fell 17 runs short of his 30^th ODI hundred and equalling Australian legend Ricky Ponting’s tally of 30 hundreds. The Indian opener has been often compared with the former Australian captain for his sumptuous pull shots.

While making a fresh comparison between the Indian captain and Australian great, former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir has ranked Rohit higher than Ponting saying that the latter didn’t have a good record in the Asian subcontinent.

"The surprising fact is that in the last four or five years he has gotten this many hundreds. Rohit Sharma before the last five-six years was not this consistent. He definitely got about 20 hundreds in the last five-six-seven years," Gambhir said on Star Sports before the start of the 2nd India vs Sri Lanka ODI.

"You missed that," Manjrekar said to attract the host's attention.

"No, he is a better player than Ricky Ponting. because Ricky has got a sh** record in the subcontinent," Gambhir added.

Rohit currently has 29 centuries and 9537 runs at an average close to 49 in 237 matches. Ponting, on the other hand, finished his ODI career with 30 centuries and 13704 runs in 375 matches at an average of 42.

Ricky Ponting averages about 40 in Asia in both Tests and ODIs

However, as Gambhir said Ponting doesn’t have a bad record in Asian conditions in ODI cricket as he averages 39.85 with the bat having 6 hundreds to his name. Gambhir must’ve mistaken Ponting’s Test numbers in India with his ODI numbers. The former Australian captain averages 26.48 with the bat in India but has a phenomenal record in other Asian countries making his average go up to 41.97 while batting in Asia.

As far as Rohit’s record in Asia is concerned, he has 14 centuries to his name at an average of 49.56. He further has 18 centuries away from home to his name in ODI cricket.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat first in the second ODI against India at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. Dasun Shanaka's men couldn't vindicate their captain's decision on batting first as they are 164/7 after 32 overs.