'Cricket Has Changed' - Waqar Younis On Comparisons Between Virat Kohli & Sachin
.jpg)
Babar Azam and Virat Kohli [X.com]
The media and fans love pitting batters against each other, regardless of which era or generation they belong to. While comparisons are bound to happen, given the nature of the sport, at times the fandoms put more emphasis on current form than overall impact.
One of the modern-day greats Virat Kohli has constantly been compared to former India legend Sachin Tendulkar, who the formers call absurd. Upcoming batter and current-era master Pakistan's Babar Azam, too, has repeatedly been compared to Kohli, which the former deems unfair.
With India and Pakistan clashing on October 14 at Ahmedabad for the all-important World Cup 2023 encounter, the comparisons have already started doing the rounds.
Speaking exclusively to OneCricket on LOC 3.0, former Pakistan captain and coach Waqar Younis, who is in India, opened up about comparisons of Kohli with both Tendulkar and Azam.
The lethal pacer explained how these comparisons between Tendulkar and Kohli are unfair and that Azam still needs to achieve a lot before being spoken alongside the India stalwart.
Younis on Tendulkar-Kohli
"Cricket has changed. The pitches have gotten better. Nowadays cricketers play shots, jo kabhi dekha hi nahi. No right to compare with Sachin. Different generations, different eras. Formats has changed, T20 cricket is here, so comparing players from a different era is not fair."
Younis on Kohli-Azam
"Cannot be compared right now. Virat has been playing for many years. Babar has done extremely well for Pakistan but needs to achieve more moving forward. "
The 51-year-old also spoke about why Pakistan fans pronounce Virat as 'Vraat', responding to a question from the host. Younis explained that the dialect could be a factor, but the issue is how the batter always scores runs against Pakistan regularly.
"Firstly, cannot tell why Vraat is pronounced, may be because of the Punjabi influence, thus the difference. However, this is not the issue but his scoring runs against Pakistan is."
In 15 ODIs against Pakistan, Kohli has slammed 662 runs with three centuries and two fifties.
 "Vishal Mehra")
