3 min readUpdated: Aug 20, 2026 07:38 AM IST
South Africa batting legend AB de Villiers claimed that former India skipper Virat Kohli elevated the country’s batting overseas, pushing his contemporaries to perfom better away from home.
De Villiers claimed that though Tendulkar set the bar for India in overseas conditions, Kohli elevated the performances to a whole new level.
Tendulkar remains the highest run-scorer in Test cricket with 15,921 runs and a record 51 centuries. His away average stands tall at 55 in 176 innings. Meanwhile, Kohli retired from Tests in 2025, finishing with 9230 runs in 123 Tests averaging 46.85. Kohli’s away average stands well before Tendulkar’s, at 41 in 68 matches.
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“I think of someone like Sachin Tendulkar way back, who started that trend for India. Yet, he wasn’t as strong as someone like Virat Kohli, who was even better. But Sachin was the first guy to show that as a subcontinent batter, you can do well in bouncy and seaming conditions. Virat took that forward and raised the bar,” said de Villiers on his YouTube channel.
“Because of that, there are quite a few players now like [KL] Rahul and [Devdutt] Padikkal, who have started to up that trend and follow in the footsteps of a Virat and a Sachin.”
De Villiers, who averaged over 50 for his 8765 runs in 114 Tests, said that despite Rahul’s solidity at the top of the batting order, his away record dwindles in comparison.
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“KL is a guy with a sound technique and is a big asset in that Indian lineup. But he averages only 34 away from home. So you’ll expect more and that is one area where he has to work on. He has to get bigger scores once he gets in and not just get a 100 but make it a 180 because that first-ball duck and getting out to the newish ball is always around the corner. So for him, the name of the game will be to make the big scores even bigger,” said de Villiers.
The 34-year-old Rahul chipped in with a valuable 81 for India against Sri Lanka in the Galle Test this week, with Padikkal cracking his maiden Test hundred at No. 3 in an eventual 165-run win.
