Former Pakistan batsman Mohammad Yousuf rates Sachin Tendulkar more than Virat Kohli

What’s the story?

Former Pakistan batsman Mohammad Yousuf has rated India’s legendary batsman Sachin Tendulkar as a better batsman than Indian skipper Virat Kohli. In spite of Kohli’s stunning form, Yousuf picked Sachin ahead of the Delhi batsman because of the quality of bowlers the master blaster faced during his time and the quality of bowlers Kohli is facing now.

“I don’t want to take anything away from Kohli. He is an exceptional talent. But I rate Tendulkar much higher because of the era he played in, against the best teams, fast bowlers and spinners. I don’t think Kohli is facing the same quality bowlers or oppositions. Nowadays, the quality of players is not the same as it was in the 90s and until 2011. After 2011 World Cup, the quality has come down. Tendulkar was a world class player and this can be judged by the number of runs and hundreds he scored against strong opposition in all conditions and in all formats,” Yousuf said.

In case you didn’t know...

Mohammad Yousuf is a legendary Pakistan batsman who represented Pakistan in 90 Tests and 288 ODIs and averaged 52.29 and 41.17 respectively. In the last few years, Virat Kohli has been sublime and has dominated the bowlers all over the world. With his performances in the recent past, comparisons between him and Sachin evolved out of nowhere and the cricket fraternity was divided on their opinions in picking the better player.

The heart of the matter

Amidst this, the Pakistani batsman has come out and voiced his opinion on the issue by preferring the former batsman to the current Indian skipper. He praised Kohli for being an exceptional player and at the same time, he conceded that the quality of the sport has been on a decline since the end of 2011 World Cup.

According to Yousuf, the quality of opposition and the bowlers were much better in the 1990s and Sachin had a great record against each and every opposition across all the formats in all conditions.

What next?

After taking India home in a thrilling encounter at Pune by scoring his 27^th ODI century and sharing a 200-run partnership with Kedar Jadhav, Kohli is now just 4 centuries away from surpassing Aussie legend Ricky Ponting, who is in the second position in the list of most ODI centuries scored by a batsman. With the kind of form he is in, it will be a surprise if Kohli fails to overtake the Aussie before the end of 2017.

But, that won’t be at top of Kohli’s mind as he has already set his sights on the 2017 Champions Trophy, which will be his first major assignment after taking over as India’s captain.

Sportskeeda’s take

Virat Kohli is definitely one of the greatest batsmen to have played this game. But, comparing him with Sachin Tendulkar is too early as the Indian skipper still has a lot to achieve what Sachin Tendulkar has accomplished in his career.