Glenn McGrath Names Top 5 Indian ODI Batters: Virat Kohli No. 1, Sachin Tendulkar Not In Top 2

Legendary Australian cricket team fast bowler Glenn McGrath placed Rohit Sharma over Sachin Tendulkar in his list of top 5 Indian batters in ODI cricket. McGrath picked star batter Virat Kohli as his top pick but stunned many by choosing Rohit as his No. 2 choice. In third place, the Australia great named Sachin followed by MS Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh. A big exclusion in his list was explosive batter Virender Sehwag. While Sachin finished his ODI career with a mammoth 18,426 runs in 463 matches, Rohit has scored 11,370 runs in 276 matches till now. McGrath called Rohit's numbers in ODI cricket 'unbelievable'.

“My No. 2 (is) Rohit Sharma. His stats in one-day cricket and the way he played the game (is) unbelievable. Three double hundreds and the highest score of 264 is just unheard of. Unbelievable. 276 matches over 11,000 runs. Probably a little bit unfortunately earmarked as a one-day specialist, his stats at Test cricket should have been better because he was a class player. I would put him at No. 2, and at No. 1, it's hard to go past Virat Kohli."

“You look at the runs he scored, the average, and the strike rate – unbelievable. We saw that the other night," he added.

Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma scripted history by becoming the oldest Indian cricket team player to claim the top spot in the ICC ODI batting rankings. At the age of 38 years and 182 days, Rohit rose two places to become the World No. 1 for the first time in his career, displacing current India captain Shubman Gill.

Rohit's rise in the rankings was a result of his stunning performance in the recently-concluded ODI series against Australia. The veteran batter emerged as the top run-scorer in the three-match series and he even received the 'Player of the Series' award.

Rohit ended the series with 202 runs in three matches at an average of 101. On the other hand, Gill did not have a good outing with just 43 runs in three matches.

Topics mentioned in this article

Virat Kohli Rohit Sharma Glenn McGrath Yuvraj Singh MS Dhoni Sachin Tendulkar Cricket