Ganguly-Tendulkar as pair faced better quality bowlers than Rohit-Kohli: Chappell

Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma has stacked up astonishing numbers while batting as a pair but when it comes to facing quality fast bowlers, the celebrated opening pair of Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly had a far tougher job.

"An argument could be mounted that Kohli and Sharma are India's best ever one-day batsmen. The obvious challengers would be the feted combination of Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly, who tormented international bowlers for 15 years," Chappell wrote in his column for 'ESPNcricinfo'.

Chappell then gave an example how during Ganguly-Tendulkar era, each international team had two quality fast bowlers.

"They (Tendulkar-Ganguly) spent bulk of that time opening together against some of the best fast-bowling combinations. Facing Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis from Pakistan; Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh of West Indies; Glenn McGrath and Brett Lee of Australia; Allan Donald and Shaun Pollock for South Africa; Lasith Malinga and Chaminda Vaas of Sri Lanka was a serious test of a batsman's skill."
"With Tendulkar it was his all-round mastery of the art but he never ceased to amaze with his back-foot forcing shots on bouncy pitches for a man short in stature. When he was going there was no better off-side player than Ganguly; his drives, so effortlessly played, would pierce even the most crowded cover field."