New Delhi: Cricketer turned politician Gautam Gambhir is one who does not mince his words and usually gives out his firm take on what he believes from his heart. Gambhir was once again put on the mat when asked on a Sports talk show about who out of the two modern era batting greats in Rohit Sharma or Virat Kohli is better in the limited overs format.

Responding to the question, Gautam replied that though Indian skipper Virat Kohli will end up scoring more runs than Rohit Sharma in white ball cricket but it is Rohit who holds the edge because of his sheer impact he lends to the game. Gambhir went on to call Rohit the best white-ball cricketer at the moment but added that he is not the all-time greatest in the format.

“... for me white-ball cricket is all about impact. Kohli will end up getting many more runs than Rohit, and Kohli is among the greatest right now, but Rohit has an edge over Kohli because of the impact he has,” Gambhir told Sports Tak, according to India Today website.

“I think he (Rohit) is the best white-ball cricketer in the world right now. He is not the greatest overall but at the moment he is the best. He is the only player to have hit 3 ODI double hundreds, 5 World Cup hundreds (in one edition) and he is also the only player, who once gets past 100-run mark, people say that he missed a double century.”

“It is very difficult to compare both of them. Virat Kohli is unbelievable. His stats prove that.

“But when your reputation is such that when you get out after a hundred, people say he has missed out on double hundred, that speaks volumes about you,” he added.

Rohit has scored 9115 runs from 224 ODIs at an average of 49.27 at a strike rate of 88.92. He has 29 hundreds and 43 fifties to his name. In T20Is, Rohit has scored 2273 runs from 108 matches at an average of 32.62 and a strike rate of 138.78.

Meanwhile, Kohli has scored 11867 runs from 248 ODIs at an average of 59.33 at a strike rate of 93.25. He has scored 43 centuries and 58 half centuries. Kohli has also scored 2794 runs from 82 T20Is at an average of 50.80 and a strike rate of 138.24.