When prompted to discuss the most gifted cricketer he has ever encountered, retired Australian cricketer and exceptional batsman Ricky Ponting forwent batting legends such as Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma and instead referred to former South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis.
Kallis represented the national side for 19 years which consisted of 166 Test matches, 328 One Day Internationals and 25 Twenty20 Internationals recording 13289, 11579 and 666 runs respectively. In addition to that, he also took 292 wickets in Tests 273 in ODIs and 12 in T20Is. Kallis who is without a doubt the all-time best all-rounder also managed to achieve 200 Test match catches and 131 in ODIs.
However, speaking from his own standpoint, Ponting expressed how Kallis merits the praise however the South African is indeed very underappreciated.
“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. Wasn’t he the one who scored 44, or rather 45 Test centuries and also took 300 wickets or more I believe and had a phenomenal record of catching in Test matches as well. So I believe he is one of the most underrated athletes who has ever played the game. Well, I understand that he is rated. Of course, he should be rated, but not so many consider him one of the great players ever, and I very much do.”
Also, the Test and ODI all-time run getter for Australia, named another cricketer in Brian Lara who he considered the most gifted batsman.
“If I had to name the most gifted batsman of all, I would say Brian Lara.”
Lara, who last played for his national team in 2007, scored over 11,953 runs, the most number of runs scored by any batsman in the history of Test cricket as at then. He is, additionally, recognized for holding the highest individual record in Test cricket that ever existed. He played for the West Indies team, England in a Test match, in the year 2004, where he scored 400 runs. As at now, no other batsman has ever played more runs than him in one inning of any match.
