The former Australian captain said the player is the most underrated in history
Former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting has named legendary South Africa allrounder Jacques Kallis as the greatest cricketer ever.
Ponting, who has finished his career with 13,378 Test runs just 89 more than Kallis, said there’s none like the Proteas great when it comes to having more than 300-plus wickets and also 10,000 Test runs.
“Jacques Kallis is the greatest cricketer that’s ever played. Full stop. I don’t care about any other thing. He has 13,000 Test runs and 45 hundreds.And 300 wickets. Either one of those careers is outstanding,” Ponting said on The Howie Games podcast.
Ponting and Kallis faced each other 27 times in Tests, with Kallis getting his wicket on six occasions. Kallis finished his career as the third highest rungetter with 13,289 back in 2014 and has 292 scalps to his name.
“You can take 300 Test wickets every day of the week, and you take 45 Tests 100s. He’s got them both. He was just a born cricketer,”Ponting added.
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Ponting who was an exceptional fielder in his career, hailed Kallis’ unconventional catching technique in the slips.
“Unorthodox in the slips, didn’t drop anything in the slips, had a sort of funny technique, caught everything. I think he’s the best and the most underrated because he’s not talked about very much at all. Probably because of his personality and his character. He’s not out there. He’s low-key, yeah. Hasn’t done much media work. So, he’s sort of one of those forgotten-about ones a little bi,” Ponting said.
Kallis and Ponting alongside Rahul Dravid dominated run charts in the 1990s and 2000s in a golden generation for No.3 batters. Kallis overcame Dravid by a single run in the runs tally with his final innings of 115 off 316 balls against India in 2013.
In the Indian Premier League, Kallis has played for Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kolkata Knight Riders. He won the IPL twice with KKR in 2012 and 2014. He had also worked as KKR’s coach from 2015-19. The South African legend is set to return to the franchise for the IPL 2025 as a batting coach.
