Rohit is a better ODI player than Ponting: Gambhir

India captain Rohit Sharma is regarded as one of the best white-ball batters of the current generation. But he was not this menacing at the start of this career. In fact, he had only two centuries in the first six years of his ODI career. His career took a defining turn when then-captain MS Dhoni promoted him as an opener in 2013. He grabbed the opportunity with both hands and started his journey to become a white-ball giant. 

Rohit scored a hundred against Jaipur and in the same series, became the third Indian batter Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag to register an ODI double hundred. Cut to the present, the classy right-handed batter is just one century away from equalling legendary Australia captain Ricky Ponting in the list of batters with the most hundreds in the history of 50-overs cricket.

Rohit currently has 29 centuries and 9537 runs at an average close to 49 in 237 matches. Ponting, on the other hand, finished with 30 centuries and 13704 runs in 375 matches at an average of 42. Can a comparison be made between Rohit and Ponting? Former India opener Gautam Gambhir certainly thinks so and in fact, he ranks the Indian captain higher than the Australian great.

"The surprising fact is that in the last four or five years he has gotten this many hundreds. Rohit Sharma before the last five-six years was not this consistent. He definitely got about 20 hundreds in the last five-six-seven years," Gambhir said on Star Sports before the start of the 2nd India vs Sri Lanka ODI.

Gambhir is right about Rohit's century graph. Rohit has indeed scored as many as 19 ODI hundreds in just five years between 2017 and 2020. In fact, his last century came back in January 2020 against Australia. For close to three years, he has been sitting one century shy of Ponting's tally.

Such was the magnitude of Gambhir's sudden comparison between Rohit and Ponting that fellow panelist and former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar was completely taken aback.

"You missed that," Manjrekar said to attract the host's attention.

"No, he is a better player than Ricky Ponting. because Ricky has got a sh** record in the subcontinent," Gambhir added.

So how is Ponting's record in the subcontinent? Average-wise there isn't much of a difference. The former Australia No.3 averages 41 in ODIs played in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. But there is a drastic difference in his centuries column. Ponting only six centuries in the subcontinent out of his 30.

Rohit, on the other hand, has an even spread of centuries. Outside the subcontinent, he has 13 ODI hundreds and averages 47, only one less than his overall career average.