Kumar Sangakkara
Virat Kohli
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Kumar Sangakkara leads 2 of 3 categories. Our all-time ranking places Kumar Sangakkara at #11 and Virat Kohli at #12.
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The case for Kumar Sangakkara
Kumar Sangakkara was one of the most prolific and elegant batsmen of his era and a fine wicketkeeper for much of his career. The Sri Lankan left-hander scored 12,400 Test runs at 57.40 with 38 centuries, eleven of them over 150, and 14,234 ODI runs, the second-highest ODI tally ever. In the 2015 World Cup he became the only man to score four consecutive ODI hundreds. Sangakkara combined classical technique with a voracious appetite for big scores, and his double and triple hundreds anchored Sri Lanka's batting alongside Mahela Jayawardene, with whom he shared a record 624-run Test partnership in 2006. Articulate and cerebral off the field, he was equally commanding at the crease. Whether keeping wicket or purely batting, his run-scoring consistency across formats places him firmly among the greatest batsmen of the modern game.
The case for Virat Kohli
Virat Kohli is the defining batsman of the post-2010 era and the greatest chaser of a target the one-day game has seen. Since debuting in 2008 he has scored more than 27,000 international runs and, as of early 2025, over 80 international centuries, including a record 50-plus ODI hundreds that surpassed Tendulkar's long-standing mark. His genius is at its clearest pursuing totals: his average in successful ODI run chases sits far above anyone else's, built on immaculate placement, running between the wickets, and control of tempo. Kohli scored heavily across all three formats, led India to the top of the Test rankings, and drove a new standard of fitness and intensity in the modern game. His 82 not out against Pakistan at the 2022 T20 World Cup is among the most celebrated innings of the era. He remains the benchmark for consistency and competitive hunger in contemporary batting.