Kohli has had an outstanding year and taken his game – and team – to a dominant level through greater preparation, fitness and even diet. What Kohli demands of himself, he also demands of his team. That resulted in a 2-0 series win in the Caribbean last year, a 3-0 whitewash of New Zealand at home and a 4-0 thumping of England at home, prompting England captain Alastair Cook to step down this week. Kohli's aggressive captaincy and batting was instrumental in the series victory against England. He crunched two centuries, finishing with 655 runs at 109.16 in eight innings against England. While Smith, 27, edges Kohli, 28, for top spot in the Test rankings, Kohli is in third spot on the one-day international rankings, behind Australian David Warner and South African AB de Villiers, with Smith in eighth spot. Kohli is the No.1-ranked Twenty20 batsman, with Smith in 90th. Joe Root, expected to be announced as England's new Test captain, New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson and Warner, who became the first man to plunder a century before lunch in a Test in Australia when he achieved that feat against Pakistan in Sydney last month, would also feature in a debate over who is the world's best batsman.

In an ominous statement ahead of Australia's tour of India, beginning this month, Ponting said Kohli would "continue to improve, especially now that he's the captain as well and his team's winning". "Is it too premature to call him the best ever? You can probably say that right now as far as his one-day cricket is concerned. His one-day record is outstanding and probably better than anybody that's ever played the game given how many hundreds (27) he's made but let's give him a few years yet in the Test series side of things," he told Gulf News before the Gary Player Invitational golf event. "It's too early yet to be taking about him being one of the greats. I think the great players we always talk about – the Tendulkars, the Laras, the Kallises – those guys played 120, 130-200 Test matches. Virat's not even halfway along that path." Kohli's 27 centuries in 177 one-day internationals leaves him fourth for most centuries, behind Tendulkar (49 in 463 matches), Ponting (30 in 375 matches) and Sanath Jayasuriya (28 in 445 matches). He has 4209 runs at 50.10 (15 centuries) in 53 Tests but his average ballooned to 75.93 for the 2016 calendar year. Smith, unorthodox in his technique, has 4752 runs at 60.15 (17 centuries) after 50 Tests. He averaged 71.93 in what was a challenging 2016 calendar year. His Test campaign began well with a century against New Zealand in Christchurch but his form mirrored Australia's troubles through Sri Lanka and, for the most part, in the series loss to South Africa, although he was unbeaten on 48 when his side was fired out for 85 in the first innings in Hobart. He responded well in Adelaide and would go on and lead with centuries in Brisbane and Melbourne against Pakistan.

Ponting said the Australians had to take Kohli out of his comfort zone if they were to prevail in the four-Test series, beginning on February 23. "The one thing about Virat Kohli is whenever there's any confrontation, he does get a little bit outside of his comfort zone. You can see that he gets ultra-aggressive, which may be a good thing for him or maybe good for the opposition," he said. "We will wait and see what happens. I think he's a similar sort of character to me as well. He wears his heart on his sleeve. He's pretty animated. He's a very aggressive player. "One thing I learnt about playing in India is the momentum that the home team can create, you have to try and stop that. "Someone like Virat, you have to take his boundary-scoring areas away and make him score his runs in different areas or make him bat for a longer time to make his runs."

ICC BATTING RANKINGS TESTS 1 Steve Smith (Australia) 2 Virat Kohli (India) 3 Joe Root (England)

4 Kane Williamson (New Zealand) 5 David Warner (Australia) ONE-DAY INTERNATIONALS 1 David Warner (Australia) 2 A.B. de Villiers (South Africa)

3 Virat Kohli (India) 4 Quinton de Kock (South Africa) 5 Kane Williamson (New Zealand) T20 INTERNATIONALS 1 Virat Kohli (India)

2 Aaron Finch (Australia) 3 Glenn Maxwell (Australia) 4 Kane Williamson (New Zealand) 5 Joe Root (England)