Former England pacer Steve Harmison snubbed India batting legend Sachin Tendulkar to name Virat Kohli as the greatest cricketer of the last three decades. Kohli, who will turn 37 next month, is set to mark his return for the national side for the first time in seven months when India tour Australia next week for three ODIs. Harmison reckoned Kohli has had to face more changes and challenges on and off the field as opposed to Tendulkar. During the 2023 ODI World Cup, Kohli surpassed Tendulkar's tally of 49 ODI centuries and currently stands atop the charts with 51 hundreds. In 302 games, the former captain has aggregated 14,181 runs, averaging 57.88. "I put Virat Kohli at number one over Sachin Tendulkar, and that would raise a lot of eyebrows. But I thought his career, and what he had to do in his career, was I thought the way the game changed over the course of this last ten years, Virat's had to have deal with a hell of a lot more off the field stuff that would affect him on the field. I think for me, in the last 20-30 years, the greatest cricketer that has played the game, you take Shane Warne out, because he had come a lot before, I think it's Virat Kohli," Harmison said on talkSPORT Cricket. Harmison also touched upon BCCI chairman of selectors, Ajit Agarkar's notion of players having to play domestic cricket whenever available to stay in contention and stated the sheer workload of over a decade has prevented both Kohli and Rohit Sharma from appearing in domestic games. "We've got to remember, these guys haven't played since 2013 and 2018 respectively, because they have been playing non-stop India. The amount of cricket they play, you look at Virat's career numbers, he made his debut in 2008-2009. The reason why they haven't played since then is that they have been constantly on the road with India," he said. "If Agarkar's looking for a fight, he might get one but he's not going to win unfortunately. This is not going the distance. This could be a heavy knock out in the first round if he tries to go in especially without Virat," Harmison remarked.
