Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting considers Sachin Tendulkar the best technically equipped batter he has ever seen.

“I’ve said forever, Sachin’s technically the best batter that I’ve ever seen, and played with or against.

“Whatever plan that we came up with as a bowling group, he found a way to combat it, whether it was in India or Australia,” Ponting was quoted as saying by the ‘ICC Review’ on the eve of Tendulkar’s 50th birthday.

“It’s hard to rank and judge players as everyone is different and everyone plays the game differently. But certainly, through the generation that I played, he was technically the best player that I saw.”

Ponting, who coaches Delhi Capitals in the IPL, refused to draw a comparison between Tendulkar and Virat Kohli. “Trying to compare the times, and I know Virat played a little bit in the back end of when Sachin played, but it is a bit of a different game now,” said Ponting.

“There’s different rules, for instance, around 50-over cricket, with less fielders outside the circle, two new balls... it makes it a lot easier now for batting than probably ever before.

“There’s no doubt that the bats have got better. Field restrictions and new balls are a big part of it as well,” Ponting observed. “Virat’s got all that (time) ahead of him. He’s an unbelievably good player, there’s no doubt about that.”