Former Australian skipper and legendary batter Ricky Ponting ignored the likes of legendary Indian cricketers Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, and Rohit Sharma when he was asked to name the most naturally talented player he has ever come across, and instead of them, he mentioned former South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis’ name.
Kallis played in 166 Tests, 328 ODIs, and 25 T20Is for the Proteas during his 19-year-long international career and scored 13289, 11579, and 666 runs, respectively. In addition to that, he also got rid of 292 batters in Tests, 273 in ODIs, and 12 in T20Is. Kallis, who is arguably the greatest all-rounder of all time, also completed 200 catches in Tests and 131 in ODIs.
According to Ponting, Kallis is the most talented player because of his all-round game, but he feels that the South African is very underrated as well.
“I’ll say Jacques Kallis is the most talented player that I’ve ever seen because of his all-round game. I’m not just talking about a talented batsman; I’m talking about a talented cricketer. Jacques Kallis made 44, 45 Test hundreds, probably 300 wickets, maybe more than that, and he’d have an unbelievable catching record as well in Test cricket, so I think he’s one of the most underrated players ever that’s played the game. I mean, I know he’s rated; obviously he should be, but not many people talk about him as being one of the all-time greats, and in my eyes, he certainly is.”
Ricky Ponting on Jacques Kallis – class recognises class pic.twitter.com/Pl05hllgGr— Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) October 4, 2024
The all-time leading run scorer for Australia in Tests and ODIs also picked former West Indies captain Brian Lara as the most naturally talented batsman.
“The most naturally talented batsman, I’d say, would be Brian Lara.”
Lara, who retired from international cricket in 2007, finished his career with 11,953 runs, which was a record for most runs scored by a batter in Tests at that time. He also holds the record for scoring the highest individual score in Test cricket’s history. During a Test match against England in 2004, he hammered 400 runs for the Caribbean team. Till date, no batter has ever managed to break his record of most runs in one inning of a match.
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