IND vs AUS | No comparison between Virat Kohli and Steve Smith in white-ball cricket, believes Gautam Gambhir

While the battle to conquer the throne of best Test batsman rages between India skipper Virat Kohli and his former Australian counterpart Steve Smith, the two are miles apart in the 50-over format of the game. To be precise, the Australian lags behind Kohli by more than 7000 ODI runs with the India skipper rushing past the 11,000-run mark in ODIs in just 222 innings.

Former India opener Gautam Gambhir believes that the batsmen are “far far” apart in ODIs with the fastest man to complete 11,000 runs in the format clearly winning the race. But what interests Gambhir is the batting position of Smith with Marnus Labuschagne as the latter is set to make his ODI debut at the Wankhede.

"Virat Kohli is far far better than Steve Smith in white-ball cricket. There's no comparison. I would not compare Kohli to Smith in white-ball cricket. I would actually want to see what spot Smith bats on. Are they're going to push him at no 4 or would have him bat at 3 and send Labuschagne at no 4," Gambhir told the host broadcaster on the eve of India's first ODI against Australia.

The cricketer-turned-politician advocated the pace duo of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami to shoulder the pace department with their troubling pace. Gambhir believes that beating the Aussie batters in the air will be the key to their undoing.

"I'm really excited to see how these two guys bowl against some of the top batters like David Warner or Aaron Finch in that kind of form in white-ball cricket on flat wickets. But the best part is that they have got pace. They can actually get wickets with that sheer pace and the quickness in the air as well,” the World Cup-winner concluded.