Home
During an appearance on the 'Beard Before Wicket' podcast, co-hosted by England cricketers Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid, former South Africa captain AB de Villiers was given a tough challenge. The 41-year-old South Africa legend was asked to blind-rank the top 10 ODI batters of the 21st century. This meant he had to rank each player from one to ten without knowing who would come up next on the list.
AB de Villiers slots Sachin Tendulkar at no.4 in blind ranking of ODI batters post-2000
De Villiers was caught completely off guard when the first player on the list was none other than batting great Sachin Tendulkar. His reaction to this surprise sparked a moment of laughter among the podcast hosts and listeners.
"Here we go again, I see the headlines already. If I go 9 I'm in trouble," de Villiers said.
Tendulkar, who amassed 18426 runs riding on 49 tons and 96 fifties at an average of 44.83 in ODIs, was slotted at no.4 spot.
Watch the video here:
Besides Sachin Tendulkar, AB de Villiers also ranked three other prominent Indian batsmen: Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, and Rohit Sharma. When it came to his top picks, he placed fellow South African Hashim Amla at number five, just below Tendulkar. Australian legend Ricky Ponting was ranked at number three, just above Tendulkar.
At the very top of his list, de Villiers unhesitatingly chose his friend and former Royal Challengers Bangalore teammate, Virat Kohli. He then ranked Rohit and Dhoni at numbers six and seven, respectively. The final three spots on the list were filled by Kumar Sangakkara, Babar Azam, and David Warner.
Interestingly, when the number two slot remained unfilled, de Villiers humorously and confidently claimed it for himself.
Reflecting on his final rankings, de Villiers remarked, "Not a bad list."
Here's the full rankings:
Virat Kohli
AB de Villiers
Ricky Ponting
Sachin Tendulkar
Hashim Amla
Rohit Sharma
MS Dhoni
Kumar Sangakkara
Babar Azam
David Warner
ADVERTISEMENT
