Mohammad Yousuf: Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli not as good as Tendulkar, Dravid

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Former Pakistani batsman Mohammad Yousuf believes that the class of current Indian cricketers, although good at their own right, cannot be compared with players of the yesteryear. Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, according to him, cannot be compared to players like Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid.

“In the past, teams, such as India, Australia and South Africa, had three-four quality players in the side. India, for example, had players like (Rahul) Dravid, Sachin (Tendulkar), (Virender) Sehwag, (Sourav) Ganguly, (VVS) Laxman and Yuvraj Singh. These six batsmen were playing in a single team,” said Yousuf.

“The current Indian team does not have such batsmen. You can’t compare the current players with the class of Sachin and Dravid,” he added.

Yousuf played the Indian team numerous times during his successful career, both in bilateral series, an option closed for current Indian and Pakistani cricketers, and in multi-team competitions like ICC Cricket World Cup and ICC Champions Trophy.

After getting his Test Cap on 26 February, 1998, Yousuf played 12 years for the Pakistan national team, in Tests, One Day Internationals and late in his career, T20 Internationals. He excelled in all three formats of the game.

In 90 Tests, Yousuf scored 7530 runs at an average of 52.29, with 24 centuries and 33 half centuries to his name. In One Day Internationals, he scored 9717 runs in 287 matches at an average of 41.88, all while scoring 15 centuries and 64 half centuries and scalping his only International wicket.

Despite being one of the most successful Pakistani batsmen of all time across formats as he went on to score centuries against all Test playing nations, Yousuf faced quite a lot of controversies, especially late in his career. He was banned from the Pakistan national team for playing in ICL. Later, he was again banned for creating ‘infighting’ within the team which led to his retirement.

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