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[caption id="attachment_36283" align="aligncenter" width="580"] Australia will have to take Virat Kohli’s boundary scoring areas away, says Ricky Ponting. Image Source: XtraTime[/caption] Internet Desk: Former Australian skipper, Ricky Ponting feels Indian captain Virat Kohli is the best ODI batsman across the globe, but it is not yet time to call him a great in Test cricket. “Is he the best batsman in the world? Yeah, he probably is. I thought he was six or seven months ago and he’s probably taken it to another level since then,” Ponting was quoted as saying by the ‘Sydney Morning Herald’. Virat Kohli was in prime form in the year 2016 in all three formats of the game, as the Indian captain guided his team towards comprehensive wins against the West Indies, New Zealand and England before taking over the captaincy of limited overs as well. Ponting told,leadership in all formats of the game would help Kohli further. “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.” “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,” he said. Speaking about the forthcoming Australia tour of India, Ponting said, the visitors need to bring Kohli out of his comfort zone, to have any chances of doing well in the four-Test series. “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,” he added. With inputs from PTI.