Skill wise where would Virat Kohli rank above Tendulkar?

[Sean Bradley]

Virat is nowhere near tendulkar. Tendulkar was miles above everyone else, just a notch below Viv Richards and slightly above Brian Lara.

 

I have never seen Virat play cut upper cut, backfoot punch drive to covers, flick to the leg side to bowl pitched on middle stump.

 

These are all godly shots, I even rate Aravinda D Silva to be ahead of Virat in terms of talent.

 

Having said this Kohli is a living example of how to achieve phenomenal success with limited talent, with sheer grit, determination and hard work.

[New guy]

20 hours ago, jusarrived said:

 

Tendulkar was a massive underachiver with that kind of talent, I know am going to hurt few here but his lack of Killer instinct was difference between India still being medicore till he retired.

If Sachin had one bumrah he would have won series after series overseas.

 

What you don't realize is how insulting this post is to our current bowlers. You are claiming our less than 25 averaging bowlers are same as the 35+ averaging bowlers Sachin had in his prime 

 

What an insult to our bowlers 

 

But then not the first time bitter Dravid fans have insulted other players. 

Edited June 8, 2025 by New guy

[New guy]

3 hours ago, raki05 said:

Chokli is ratta maar ke top karney wala student ……. Tendulkar is like skilled students who study less and still scores more.

Sachin was one of the most hardworking cricketers who practices even when near 40. So this comparison doesn't make sense 

[JazzyB]

Yes skill matters but to a way lesser extent than using what you have to win games

 

Virat may he less skilled but he is without doubt a bigger match winner than Sachin across all formats - bith individually and team performance

[cricketfan28]

about 80% of what sachin was.

[MechEng]

23 hours ago, singhvivek141 said:

Kohli was better in chase, no doubt about it.
Yeah, he was helped with flatter decks, better bats, balanced ball which don't swing for long and DRS. But despite all this Kohli's ability to chase targets is insane (in ODI's). Mentally he was stronger than Sachin while chasing.

Kohli was also better in the flick shot to leg. He had that power which Sachin didn't had...Sachin has artistry and finesse, Kohli had power.

 

Kohli's midwicket flick for six is unreal, super strong and supple wrists you need to play those. Gives Jayasuriya a competition too.

[MechEng]

@Adamant @Gollum I bet Kohli found enough gaps before settling with Anushka. Indeed the "Master Chaser"

[Ultimate_Game]

Kohli was ahead in useless bilaterals. Anything else, Tendulkar was ahead.

[Adamant]

1 hour ago, Ultimate_Game said:

Kohli was ahead in useless bilaterals. Anything else, Tendulkar was ahead.

Kohli has better stats in finals of world cup, match winning century in semifinals of world cup.

 

Match winning knock of 90 vs Aus in CT semi, match winning knock in semis of ct 2013.

 

If there is a single Sachin Knock that matches these KO match winning knocks then please show me.

[putrevus]

I see same idiots trying to put Kohli down.He is living rent free in their minds.

 

Tendulkar had all the skills but he never had ability to dominate due to his mindset.

 

Tendulkar had a flawless technique plus he had ability to change the technique based on pitches and bowlers.

 

Kohli always had lot of technical issues, he overcame everything with sheer determination.

 

It is not even a comparision talent wise and technique wise Tendulkar is so far superior.

 

At their best I would still choose Kohli as I know Tendulkar would be satisfied by getting his one or two scores.

Edited June 9, 2025 by putrevus

[Zero_Unit]

Skill wise, Sachin. No doubt about that. Also, just visually, Virat's batting does not look as good as Sachin's.

Edited June 9, 2025 by Zero_Unit

[vvvslaxman]

If we purely talk about skills Kohli is inferior given that his only solution for everything was to stand 2 feet outside the crease. Be it is countering seam or swing.  He didn't develop a neutral position that he could hang on to for life. He is no Steve smith who literally changed his technique every match. Smith was prepared to be ugly and grind it out even when he went through bad patch. But fisherman kept on playing that expansive cover drive far away from body and edging through to slips for 3 years. Also his skill somewhat regressed too soon for an elite batsman. He used to come down the wicket against spinners freely and connecting it. THen he stopped coming as he couldn't pick the length. He started developing issues against off spinners, left arm spinners, left arm seamers, right arm channel bowlers. Teams could stifle him in variety of ways. Wish we could talk about Kohli outside 4 or 5 years. But he left us with nothing to talk about. Guys like Root/Smith went and beyond him. THey had their second peaks. 

[Bigg Brother]

Skillwise he was actually consistent in this..From 2011 to 2025. 

 

 

[Suhaan]

7 hours ago, putrevus said:

I see same idiots trying to put Kohli down.He is living rent free in their minds.

 

Tendulkar had all the skills but he never had ability to dominate due to his mindset.

 

Tendulkar had a flawless technique plus he had ability to change the technique based on pitches and bowlers.

 

Kohli always had lot of technical issues, he overcame everything with sheer determination.

 

It is not even a comparision talent wise and technique wise Tendulkar is so far superior.

 

At their best I would still choose Kohli as I know Tendulkar would be satisfied by getting his one or two scores.

Post of the millennium 

Edited June 9, 2025 by Suhaan

[tapandrun]

Not sure what is the definition of skill here being discussed.

But over all Sachin had more shots than kolhi, Sachin can bowl (off-spin, leg spin and seam-up), think he could have got most degrees of turn by an Ind spinner.

Amongst the contemporaries he had all the shots, does kolhi have all the shots for his time ...??? -- reverse , scoop... etc ...???

 

But Kolhi is a good ground fielder, chasing a target down in white-ball cricket was/is his biggest skill which has changed the game big time now.

Teams prefer chasing now there is not extra pressure of chasing, this is something that changed cricket. Has sachin done something that changed the game overall ....??

 

 

Edited June 10, 2025 by tapandrun

[Suhaan]

1 minute ago, tapandrun said:

Not sure what is the definition of skill here being discussed.

But over all Sachin had more shots than kolhi, Sachin can bowl (off-spin, leg spin and seam-up), think he could have got most degrees of turn for an Ind spinner.

Amongst the contemporaries he had all the shots, does kolhi have all the shots for his time ...??? -- reverse , scoop... etc ...???

 

But Kolhi is a good ground fielder, chasing a target down in white-ball cricket was/is his biggest skill which has changed the game big time now.

Teams prefer chasing now there is not extra pressure of chasing, this is something that changed cricket. Has sachin done something that changed the game overall ....??

 

 

Chasing became relatively easier due to batsmen centric rules for past 15-16 years

[Suhaan]

Kohli will remain the last undisputed superstar of Indian cricket 

For me that's his biggest achievement 

 

[StraightDrive26]

5 hours ago, Suhaan said:

Chasing became relatively easier due to batsmen centric rules for past 15-16 years

Also Sachin was an opener, please show me opening batters who consistently chased 300+ totals by batting till 50th over. How many instances have we had in the history of the game? That's the reason we cannot compare even a number 3 to a opener in any format. Sachin has given a lot of blazing starts for India in chases, the Indian middle order was so horrible even after Rahul Dravid made it to the Indian team that none of those starts were converted to wins. If India had Virat, Dhoni, Yuvraj, Raina etc in his peak in the 90's, India would have won a lot of games. Hard to blame Sachin for losses in ODIs when he opened the batting. 

 

Okay here is the record for batters who opened the batting and remained not out in wins:

 

Haynes 20

Sachin 16

Guptil/Anwar/Rohit 13

Ganguly 12

Hayden 12

Gayle 11

Jayasuriya 10

 

Also need to consider that some of the players above had great bowling attacks which meant they were chasing a lower total a lot of times. Desmond Haynes played in an era where average score was around 200. 

 

So now my question is that why is Sachin getting so much hate for something which isn't the norm in world cricket in ODIs? Even batters you guys place higher than Sachin in this metric feature below him. Opening the batting and chasing a total isn't something which is a norm in world cricket. Even then Sachin has done it a lot more times than few others. So when we do the same for positions 3/4 then we get batters with records of 30+ not outs where Virat leads the pack. The best opening pair for Australia Hayden & Gilly did it only 12 and 7 times respectively in their careers. Openers set up games and the batters in positions 3-6 are expected to take the game forward and win. Unfortunately when Sachin was this aggressive opener, the positions 3-6 were horrible batters who did not know how to win games. Prime example India vs Australia 1996 WC, Sachin got India to 140+ in less than 30 overs with him scoring 90 of 84 balls. India had 6 wickets in hand to score less than run a ball. Why did India score only 143 when Sachin had 90 of 84? look at these SR's Azhar 10 of 17, A Jadeja 1 of 17, Sanjay M 62 of 91 balls. India lost the game by 16 runs with 2 more overs left. These are the games even in 1996 would have been won by Australia, SA or even Pakistan. Virat had great opening combination for most of his career and a great middle order after him as well. 

[bowl_out]

6 hours ago, Bigg Brother said:

Skillwise he was actually consistent in this..From 2011 to 2025. 

 

 

Wow. If you showed this to someone new to cricket, they would think getting caught behind the stumps is the only mode of dismissal.

 

Any stat on what % of his dismissals in Tests are caught by keeper/slips?

Edited June 10, 2025 by bowl_out

[bowl_out]

6 hours ago, Bigg Brother said:

Skillwise he was actually consistent in this..From 2011 to 2025. 

 

 

Most of them were harmless balls that could have just been left alone