AB de Villiers rates Sachin Tendulkar as a better batsman than Virat Kohli, says he sets the standard for everyone

Former South Africa captain AB de Villiers faced a tough time on Monday as his fans asked him to choose his favourite between Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli and Steve Smith.

De Villiers, who plays under Kohli at Indian Premier League franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore, said that Kohli is better than Smith when it comes to score big and win games all around the world.

“It’s difficult (to pick between Virat Kohli and Steve Smith). Virat is definitely the more natural ball striker. Smudge (Smith) is also up to that. Let’s do it in tennis terms. Virat is like Federer, Smith is more like Nadal. He’s (Smith) mentally very strong and figured out a way of scoring runs, he looks odd at the crease, doesn’t look natural but he ends up breaking records and doing amazing things at the crease. But my pick is Virat, who is more of a natural ball-player. He’s scored runs all over the world, won games under pressure so he’s my pick,” de Villiers said.

A fan them posed a more tougher question as he asked De Villiers to chose a favourite between Kohli and Tendulkar.

“Sachin for both (him and Kohli) of us is like a role model. The way he stood out back in the day in his era and the things he achieved and with the grace he did all of that, its a great example for everyone. I think Virat will also say that he’s (Tendulkar) the main guy, he’s the dude. He set the standards for guys like us to follow. Personally for me, specially in a chase I’d say Virat is the best I’ve ever seen in my life. There’s no-one that beats him when it comes to… the opposition scores 330 and you’ve got to go chase it down,” he said.

“Sachin was amazing in all formats, all sorts of situations but Virat tops him there when it comes to chasing under pressure. For me that’s where I rate sportsman, when it comes to tennis, golf… the Tiger Woods of the world. When the heat is really on you feel like your whole body is numb, but he (Kohli) stands up and he does amazing things. That’s what Virat does under pressure,” de Villiers added.

Source: zeenews