'Don't really enjoy his batting, but...': Mohammad Yousuf makes huge remark on question about Virat Kohli vs Steve Smith
Pakistan's batting great Mohammad Yousuf made a huge remark as he was asked to pick between Virat Kohli and Steve Smith.
India's star batter Virat Kohli and Australia's Steve Smith are widely regarded as two of the modern-day greats. While Kohli has ruled the roost in all three formats of the game, Smith – especially in Tests – enjoys an incredible dominance. He boasts of an average of 60 in 87 matches in the longest format, and has 28 centuries to his name in the format. Smith had also achieved the second-highest Test rating points in the history of the game after batting legend Sir Donald Bradman, reaching 947 in December 2017.
Kohli, meanwhile, is currently the second-highest century scorer in ODIs, and is the joint-second highest amount of centuries (71) in international cricket. The 33-year-old former India captain is also the fastest to 10,000 runs in ODIs; in Tests, the right-handed batter has 27 centuries to his name in 102 matches. Justifiably, both, Kohli and Smith are widely counted among the ‘Fab 4’ of international cricket – the other two being New Zealand's Kane Williamson and England's Joe Root.
But former Pakistan captain Mohammad Yousuf has now made his choice on who is better among Kohli and Smith. In a video posted by Cricket Pakistan, Yousuf spoke in detail about his choice, and also gave his reasoning behind the same.
“I don't really enjoy Steve Smith's batting, but the way he has performed in Test cricket... he is second only to Sir Donald Bradman in terms of Test rankings as well as average. The way he is performing, I don't think Virat Kohli has performed on a similar level in Test cricket,” Yousuf said.
Recently, Virat Kohli endured a rough patch in international cricket which ended when he smashed a century in a T20I against Afghanistan in Asia Cup earlier this month. Smith, too, had been registering fifty-plus scores with consistency in the longest format over the past few years but broke the three-figure deadlock this year after 11 matches, as he smashed an unbeaten 145 against Sri Lanka in Galle.