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Originally Posted by Gowza
this is a special 23 year old, most players won't ever be able to be as consistent and high quality as kohli is let alone at the age of 23.
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As 23YO batsmen go since Lara-Ponting-Tendulkar, the only other 23YO as special as Kohli I can think of is Michael Clarke, but I think he'll surpass the Australian phenom by some distance in 10 years max if he doesn't go through too many dry patches in a reasonably long career. Kohli already has more ODI hundreds, is a superior T20I player, and has begun to stamp his authority in tests since Perth. Both Graeme Smith and AB Devillers, each very impressive as a 23YO, are still going strong. Alastair Cook, Andrew Strauss and Kevin Pietersen are up there also.
I'm only talking about young batsmen who managed to sustain early success, not relatively late bloomers like Mathew Hayden, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara or more recently, Hashim Amla.
Shakib Al Hasan has also been very special but from the far narrower context of his incredible value primarily to Bangladesh.
Anyway, here's one way to measure a batsman in terms of the centuries he scores (not including Sir Don, who's in a class all by himself):
1. 30+ centuries per format = legend
2. 20-29 centuries per format = great
3. 15-19 centuries per format = good