If the all-round aspect of Kallis can be ignored, from a purely batting point of view I would rate Sachin above Kallis. Sachin is a genius when it comes to batting and he is equally good in both long and short forms of the game. There is not a single shot he can't play... all kinds or sweep shots, hooks, pulls, uppercuts.. he nails every shot to perfection. These days his ability has deteriorated significantly but when he was at his prime against Wasim, Ambrose, Donald, Mcgrath, Warne and co. he had the ability to dominate attacks and dictate terms and look really good while doing it. To me a better debate would be between Lara and Tendulkar.
Kallis is a very capable and effective batsman and so is Cook. They will both be legends in their own right. Their stats might even be better than both Lara and Sachin but it's not the same when I watch Lara, Sachin bat and when I watch Kallis or Cook bat.
This is just from my own perspective but Tendulkar has been declared the best by the renowned cricketers as well:
Ricky Ponting:
'Punter' Ponting has rated Sachin Tendulkar the best batsmen of his generation, placing Tendulkar higher on the pecking order than the likes of Brian Lara, Matthew Hayden and the Waugh twins. Ponting freely admitted the diminutive batting maestro from Bombay had the ability to win any match off his own bat." I've always thought he's the best batsman I've seen or played against," said Ponting. "Looking at the way he's played of late I think he's getting somewhere back to his best again. As we've seen in the past, he's actually won games against us single-handedly on occasions."
Australian first-class cricketers:
India's Sachin Tendulkar and Australia's Glenn McGrath have been rated the best in the business in a survey of Australia's 145 first class players. Sixty eight percent of those questioned said Tendulkar was the world's best batsman ahead of Australian captain Steve Waugh (27 percent) and West Indian Brian Lara (three percent).
Steve Waugh:
"You take Don Bradman away and he (Sachin) is next up, I reckon."
Marlon Samuels:
"Sachin is the best batsman in the world. The way he lifts the team and the way he bats. Watching him play helps me in my batting."
Andy Flower:
"There's Sachin on one hand, and then there are the rest of us."
Glenn McGrath:
"For me, it's Tendulkar. Both are class acts (lara vs Tendul) but I am saying this because I have had more success against Lara than I have against Tendulkar. I think I have a fair idea of what Lara likes and doesn't like and I feel I can make his life at the crease very uncomfortable. He is vulnerable outside the off-stump early on and is not as tight as Tendulkar in defense. I would go for Tendulkar as the best in the world."
Only guy that has that kind of aura of genius about him right now is K. Pietersen
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Caught Somewhere in Time
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