Lionel Messi's 3 closest cricketing parallels

Lionel Messi led Argentina to the FIFA World Cup 2022 trophy in the final against France on Sunday (18 December). The Argentine is one of the living legends of the football world but had never won the FIFA World Cup before.

Ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, it was well-known that this edition was going to be Messi's last chance to win the prestigious trophy. Argentina started their campaign with a shock defeat against Saudi Arabia.

However, the Lionel Messi-led outfit bounced back in style and built an unbeaten streak to lift the FIFA World Cup 2022 trophy. Messi was the hero for the team in the final as he scored two goals in the first 120 minutes and was also successful in the penalty shootout.

Many football fans feel that Lionel Messi is the epitome of talent, while his rival Cristiano Ronaldo is the icon of hard work. Speaking of Messi, there are three such cricketers who have been compared with the Argentine because of their sheer talent. We look at three of those cricketers.

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#1 Sachin Tendulkar

India v Pakistan - ICC Champions Trophy (Image: Getty)

Former Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar is reckoned by many as the greatest batter in cricket history. Tendulkar earned the tag of 'God of cricket' because of his sheer brilliance on the field.

Shedding some light on his extraordinary numbers in international cricket, Tendulkar smashed 100 centuries across three formats of international cricket. He won the Orange Cap in the IPL and helped India win many matches. Tendulkar was also part of the Indian squad that lifted the 2011 World Cup.

Incidentally, both Sachin Tendulkar and Lionel Messi donned the number '10' jerseys. The two players also won the last World Cup event of their careers, and both possess enormous amounts of talent.

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#2 Rohit Sharma

Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are the two biggest superstars of the cricket world among the active players. The two Indian batters have made a name for themselves with their splendid performances across all formats of the sport.

Many fans feel that Sharma is like Lionel Messi of cricket, while Kohli is cricket's Cristiano Ronaldo. The reason behind it is that Sharma has a huge amount of talent, and Kohli's hard work is unmatched.

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#3 AB de Villiers

Former South African captain AB de Villiers is another player who possessed an incredible amount of talent. He displayed his magic on the cricket pitch when he came out to bat and there was no shot that de Villiers could not play.

Even after retiring from international cricket, de Villiers continued to destroy the bowlers in league cricket. He finally decided to call time on his career after the 2021 IPL season. Royal Challengers Bangalore inducted him into the RCB Hall of Fame for his extraordinary performances.

The T20 World Cup 2022-winning captain Jos Buttler once famously described the pair of AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli as the Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo of cricket.