AB de Villiers blind ranks Dhoni, Rohit, Kohli and Tendulkar as ODI batters

South African great AB de Villiers blindly ranked Indian stars MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Sachin Tendulkar, among other ODI batters, including himself. He recently appeared on the 'Beard Before Wicket' podcast.

The first name was that of Sachin. AB de Villiers ranked the legend fourth. He placed Dhoni seventh and Rohit sixth. The other Indian name on the list was that of Kohli. He placed Kohli right at the top and ranked him first.

De Villiers placed himself second on the list. He ranked Ricky Ponting third, Hashim Amla fifth, Kumar Sangakkara eighth, Babar Azam ninth, and David Warner tenth.

Among the four Indians, only Rohit and Kohli are active in ODI cricket. Sachin is the leading scorer for the Men in Blue with 18426 runs from 463 ODIs. Kohli is behind him with 14181 runs from 302 games. Rohit comes fourth with 11168 runs from 273 matches, while Dhoni is sixth with 10599 runs.

AB de Villiers played 228 ODIs himself and scored 9577 runs at an average of 53.50 with 25 centuries.

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AB de Villiers opens up on batting with Virat Kohli

AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli shared a special bond while they played together. They have a strong camaraderie off the field as well. De Villiers and Kohli shared the dressing room for 11 consecutive seasons during the South African's stint with Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the IPL.

In the same podcast, AB de Villiers reflected on his experience while the two batted together.

"We play the game in a similar way, very busy at the crease, run hard, get behind what the bowler is trying to do and then find ways to attack. There were two partnerships, one at the Wankhede and one at the Chinnaswamy. Both felt similar, days games, and both of us in the form of our lives. That always helps. I just loved batting with him. It was nice to be out there with him. Absolutely incredible experience," he said. (55:44)

De Villiers and Kohli hold the record for the most partnership runs by a pair in a single IPL season. The duo had scored 939 runs from 13 innings at an average of 78.26 in 2016.

It was in that very season that they recorded a mammoth 229-run stand against the now-defunct Gujarat Lions at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.