Former Indian cricket team chief selector Sandeep Patil has stirred up a debate as he has said that opener Rohit Sharma is a better batsman than talismanic skipper Virat Kohli in limited overs format of the game.

During a chat show on a TV news channel, Patil said that at the moment, in terms of batting, Rohit is few steps ahead of Kohli.

"Virat Kohli fans might not like it but I have to say Rohit Sharma is currently the better batsman. Virat is definitely a great batsman, no doubt about it. He is India’s best Test batsman but when it comes to limited overs cricket, Rohit is ahead of him," Patil added," Patil told ABP news.

In the recently concluded ODI and T20I series against Sri Lanka, Rohit broke multiple batting records and set numerous new one, as regular skipper Kohli was away from the game as he was given time off to tie the knot with Anushka Sharma.

Rohit slammed his third ODI double ton in the second match of the series — only cricketer to do so — while he also slammed his second T20I ton off just 35 deliveries (joint fastest) — only Indian to do so.

But what's striking is that there is very little to choose between Kohli and Rohit in terms of numbers in the 50-over format of the game since 2015. Both Rohit and Kohli have slammed 11 centuries each during this time, however, it is the India opener who has taken less innings to reach there.

Rohit has slammed 11 tons in mere 48 ODIs that he played since 2015, whereas Kohli has done so in 56 matches. But Kohli leads the race in terms of runs as he has scored 2822 runs (12 fifties) while Rohit has aggregated 2672 (11 fifties) during this time.

Moreover, he led the Indian team to series wins in both ODI and T20I against the Islanders to further enhance his reputation as a leader of the side.