I don’t think Virat Kohli is in the same league of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid or VVS Laxman, reckons Mohammad Yousuf

Former Pakistani cricketer Mohammad Yousuf reckons that though Indian skipper Virat Kohli might be considered one of the best with the willow today, but that won't sure;y put his name alongside greats like Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid or even VVS Laxman.

IANS

New Delhi: Former Pakistani cricketer Mohammad Yousuf reckons that though Indian skipper Virat Kohli might be considered one of the best with the willow today, but that won't surely put his name alongside greats like Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid or even VVS Laxman.

The 42-year-old cricketing legend who had dominated the 22 yards of space along with some of the others during his playing days feels that the game of cricket now lacks good bowling spearhead or powerful batsmen. He then picked up teams by teams to illustrate his point.

“Some might not agree but I don’t think today we have the same quality bowlers or batsmen that we had when I played. Look at Australia’s present bowling line-up they have no one to match Glenn McGrath or Shane Warne, India had Anil Kumble, Srinath and some very good bowlers. South Africa and West Indies also had strong bowling attacks while Sri Lanka relied heavily on Muralitharan,” Yousuf said in an interview to Geo Super channel.

“The rules have also been changed to make life easier for the batters while the pitches nowadays have also become more batting friendly. In the era I played you encountered different pitches in Australia, England, West Indies, South Africa. Nowadays more or less they are same everywhere,” he added.

He thus based the above explanation to put forth the point why he considered Sachin, Dravid and Laxman to be of a different league of batsmen.

“Yes they are getting runs but against weaker opposition and on similar pitches. I think Tendulkar and Dravid are greats because they scored runs against quality bowlers and teams,” he said.

“To get runs against the likes of Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Shoaib Akhtar or Saqlain Mushtaq was no joke. I always thought Tendulkar and Dravid were perfectionists and spent so much time on improving their game. I learnt from them.”

Yousuf thus made his point saying, "The quality of cricket nowadays does not match the quality we had in the past. Virat Kohli is a very good batsman and I like to watch him play but I don’t think he is in the same league of Tendulkar, Dravid or Laxman."

However he did defend Virat's aggressiveness on the field, comparing him to that of Sourav Ganguly.

“Even the Indian teams and players of the past were aggressive. Saurav Ganguly is an example. When we played them our players were also pumped up but at the end of the day we always appreciated a good performance even from the opposition because the quality of cricket was high.”