Kohli's Test record is getting right up there. He has that Lara-like ability to go on a God-like run of form and completely dominate series with the bat (Sachin rarely did that). He's had some notable dips but they've been rare in recent times.
Yes, but the batting will be stacked and even then you don't really need a overly stacked/conventional batting line up and can have pinch hitters in my view due to the heavy average weighting from 3-5. To be fair number 10 and 11 don't need to be able to bat, but another problem for me was looking at their lack of ability in the field. It's why I tried to make sure all my team from 9 up were decent fielders too as I picked McGrath and Ambrose.
My captain is Kohli and vice Gilchrist. Kohli's a winner and ferocious competitor. He can get tactical help from other players. I feel like he will bat better with the captaincy too.
Kohli is a better player than Tendulkar and Lara in my view. He averages above 50 in all three formats and decent strike rate too in all three formats, it looks nice on his cricinfo profile. Kohli is also better in the field than both of them and will save runs in the field compared to the other two.
He has a lot of upside potential, I agree. He's in the fab 4 after all. Sachin was a lot more consistent than Lara though. In terms of consistency, I'd go Sachin>Ponting and Lara by some distance but one could mount a reasonable argument that both of them had more stellar performances than him.
Adelaide 2014.
Adelaide was as close to what Sachin did at Chennai as you can get.
haha woah there, not even the most rabid Kohli fan will claim he's a better Test batsman than those three.
Ponting was only indisputablely behind Tendulkar in his time, but he's comparable to a lot of players. Guys like Hussey, Dhoni and Bevan who averaged significantly above him. Guys like klusenar, Gilchrist and Symonds who struck a lot faster. A couple of these did both. I'm not interested in making the argument that any of these guys are actually better than him, but you can see how the argument can be made, whereas for Kohli you are picking guys striking at a similar pace but averaging way less.
Well that's a fair argument. My point was in terms of natural talent, Kohli isn't streets ahead of Ponting.
I can't believe so many people have bought into the meme of Kohli being some excellent fielder. The guy has cost us matches with his poor catching yet continues to put himself in the slips like he's Mark Waugh or something. His athleticism is vastly overblown too, doesn't even throw himself around as much as you'd expect.