Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar. (File) Former Pakistan off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq feels Sachin Tendulkar will always be ahead of Virat Kohli in terms of greatness as he has played more difficult bowlers during his playing days.
“If there is one batter – and it’s not just me, the whole world agrees – there is no one bigger than Sachin Tendulkar. If you have to give a copybook example of any shot, people give Sachin’s example. Virat Kohli is a legend of today’s era but Sachin has faced extremely difficult bowlers,” Saqlain said on the Nadir Ali’s podcast.
Saqlain Mushtaq, who has played 49 Tests and 169 ODIs for Pakistan, explained why Sachin will always be considered as a great batsman becasue of the bowlers he has faced during his playing days.
“Has Kohli faced Wasim Akram? Has he faced Walsh, Ambrose, McGrath, Shane Warne, Muralitharan? These were big names and they were all very clever bowlers. They knew how to trap you. Today there are two types of bowlers – one that will stop you and another that will trap you. Those guys knew how to do them both – especially trap batters,” he said.
On Babar Azam vs Virat Kohli debate, the former off-spinner said Babar has a long way to go to be compared to Kohli, but he did give the Pakistan skipper a bit of an advantage.
“Kohli and Babar are different players but both have their own class. But if you look at the beauty, perfection or technical aspects, Babar’s cover drives are much better,” he said.
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