"It's pretty hard to look past that" - Jos Buttler chooses between Sachin Tendulkar and Jacques Kallis for the greatest cricketer

England wicketkeeper-batter Jos Buttler recently chose between Sachin Tendulkar and Jacques Kallis for the greatest cricketer. Buttler picked Kallis over Tendulkar for his all-round numbers, saying it is difficult to look past Kallis while selecting a team.

Buttler drew comparions to Indian greats Sachin Tendulkar and Zaheer Khan, saying Kallis as an individual is equivalent to Tendulkar with the bat and Zaheer with the ball.

"I'm going to say Kallis just because I saw Ricky Ponting say hands down Kallis is the best cricketer. His numbers, when put together are equivalent of Tendulkar with the bat and Zaheer Khan with the ball in one cricketer. It's pretty hard to look past that if you are trying to pick a team," Jos Buttler said on 'For The Love Of Cricket' Podcast (34:58).

Kallis played 166 Tests and 328 ODIs for South Africa in his international career. He scored 13289 runs in Tests at an average of 55.37 with 45 hundreds and 58 fifties. He also picked up 292 wickets with the ball in the format. In ODIs, Kallis scored 11579 runs at an average of 44.36 with 17 hundreds and eight fifties. With the ball, he bagged 273 wickets in the format.

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Stuart Broad picks between Sachin Tendulkar and Jacques Kallis

In the same podcast, former England pacer Stuart Broad also made his choice between Sachin Tendulkar and Jacques Kallis. Broad went with Kallis, keeping the balance of the team in mind. However, he also added that Sachin Tendulkar dealt and coped with a lot of pressure as compared to Kallis.

"I think you have to go, in your team, for balance, Kallis for 300 Test wickets (292), averaged 58 (55.37) with the bat. He's probably in my opinion the greatest all-round cricketer of all time. But then you talk about winning, Sachin winning the 2011 ODI World Cup in Mumbai, for someone that carried a nation. The pressure he played under, compared to Kallis, what Sachin dealt with and coped with, and kept the standard, 200 Test matches," he said.

Tendulkar played 200 Tests and amassed 15921 runs at an average of 53.78 with 51 hundreds and 68 fifties. He played 463 ODIs, piling on 18426 runs at an average of 44.83 with 49 hundreds and 96 fifties.

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Edited by Sudeshna Banerjee