Mohammad Yusuf feels Virat Kohli is not in the league of legends like Sachin and Dravid

Among the current crop of batsmen, Virat Kohli, Steve Smith, Joe Root and Kane Williamson stand ahead of all these gentlemen are also the skippers of the four major teams. While experts may disagree on the one who tops this list of champions it is a common belief that these men will write a golden history for the future generations to read.

Indian skipper Kohli has managed to breach past records across formats with natural ease. He already has 17 hundreds in Tests and as many as 28 centuries along with 8257 runs in ODIs which is the joint third most number of tons in the format and he is 28 himself. But despite that in former Pakistan cricketer Mohammad Yusuf’s opinion Kohli does not fit in the league of legends.

“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,” Yousuf said while talking on Pakistani channel Geo Super.

When Yusuf was at his peak Indian batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar dominated the batters charts while he formed the fab 4 with Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly. He rates what the legends from the past did higher since the quality of bowlers who dominated the scenes then were far better than the ones who are around at the moment.

Quality of bowling has diminished

“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,” Yusuf stated.

Another point that he raised was that the game has tilted towards the batters, the pitches are flatter than they ever were even in places like England, Australia and South Africa that in the olden times featured wickets that assisted the pacers and made life difficult for the 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.”

“I am not saying Virat is not a class act. He is, but times have changed now,” he concluded.