Former Australian skipper, Michael Clarke reckons that the batting legend Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli are among the top-seven batsmen he played with or against during his international career. Apart from the Indian stalwarts, West Indies’ Brian Lara, countryman Ricky Ponting, South Africa’s Jacques Kallis, and AB de Villiers, and Sri Lankan Kumar Sangakkara also find a place in his list.

During an interaction with Fox Sports, Clarke said, “(Tendulkar) Probably technically the best batsman I ever saw. The hardest batsman to get out. I think Sachin, technically, didn’t have a weakness. Part of you hoped that he made a mistake.”

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The current India skipper Kohli, Clarke thinks, is the best batsman across formats and his illustrious batting records are a testament to that. He said that Kohli has been pheon=mebnal in ODIs and T20Is, but in recent times, he has also found a way to dominate in the longest format of the game. Clarke also feels that Kohli and Tendulkar have a common urge of scoring big hundreds.

However, Lara is Clarke’s personal favourite. Michael Clarke said, “Probably my favorite batsman through my career. You look at statistics and his average is probably not as high as others names on this list but it was the way he played, whether that it was against fast bowlers or spinners.”

For Clarke, Ponting is the best Australian batsman he has ever played alongside.

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The former Australian skipper said, “He’s probably the best Australian batsman I played with. I was lucky enough to play with some great batsman Matthew Hayden, Steve Smith, David Warner, Adam Gilchrist, Damien Martyn who was a genius. What separates Ricky is the era that he played. Just about every attack had two or three top-line, world-class bowlers and he was able to dominate them.”