AB de Villiers terms Virat Kohli as best ODI batter of 21st century, ranks Sachin Tendulkar at four in a shocking move

AB de Villiers blind-ranked 10 ODI batters of 21st century.

Former South Africa captain AB de Villiers has termed Virat Kohli as the best ODI batter of the 21st century. The former Proteas stalwart also ranked himself above batting legend Sachin Tendulkar in the list of top-10 batters.

During the podcast ‘Beard Before Wicket’ with Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali, De Villiers was asked to blind-rank 10 batters in ODI cricket without knowing who comes next on the list. The condition was that, he should consider the post-2000 version of the batters.

Sachin Tendulkar was the first name that appeared on the list, and De Villiers shockingly put him on the fourth spot. Tendulkar is the all-time highest run-scorer in ODI cricket. Later, he put his former teammate Hashim Amla below Tendulkar.

Interestingly, he placed former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting above Tendulkar at the No.3 spot. He reserved the No.1 spot for Kohli, who owns the record for most ODI centuries. He later placed himself at the second rank.

India ODI skipper Rohit Sharma and former captain MS Dhoni were placed in the sixth and seventh spots respectively. Former Sri Lanka skipper Kumar Sangakkara, who is the second highest run-scorer in ODI cricket, got eighth spot. De Villiers placed David Warner in the 10th spot and put Babar Azam above him at the ninth position.

AB de Villiers’ top 10 ODI batters of 21st century

1. Virat Kohli
2. AB de Villiers
3. Ricky Ponting
4. Sachin Tendulkar
5. Hashim Amla
6. Rohit Sharma
7. MS Dhoni
8. Kumar Sangakkara
9. Babar Azam
10. David Warner

Meanwhile, de Villiers played 228 ODIs for South Africa and scored 9577 runs at a marvellous average of 53.50. The right-handed batsman hammered 25 centuries and 53 fifties in the 50-over format. He retired from international cricket in 2018.

In July, De Villiers played for South Africa Champions in the World Championship of Legend (WCL) 2025. In the final, he slammed a century to drive his team to victory against Pakistan Champions.

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