South Africa legend AB de Villiers faced a lot of criticism for his recent comparison between Indian legends Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar. However, he has now issued a clarification over the comparison which he made earlier as well. However, in a recent video, AB de Villiers said that Kohli was better than Sachinwhen it came to the growth of Indian batters in Test cricket overseas as well.
“I think of someone like Sachin Tendulkar way back, who started that trend for India. Yet, he wasn’t as strong as someone like Virat Kohli, who was even better. But Sachin was the first guy to show that as a subcontinent batter, you can do well in bouncy and seaming conditions. Virat took that forward and raised the bar. Because of that, there are quite a few players now like Rahul and Padikkal, who have started to up that trend and follow in the footsteps of a Virat and a Sachin,” he had said earlier.
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“There was a bit of confusion with my Virat and Sachin comment. Remember, it’s my opinion. I’m not axing anyone. I’m telling you the way that I see it. Sachin was the first to take things forward for India, showing all the youngsters what it takes to perform consistently everywhere around the world. I said that Virat sort of showed that there is a different dynamic to Indian batting by being good on the short ball. He found a way to counter that,” he said in his latest video on his YouTube channel.
However, AB de Villiers also opined on the fact that Virat Kohli’s numbers in away Tests may not have been as great as those of Tendulkar; but he felt that Kohli had an all-round and well-balanced game required to score runs in overseas conditions as well.
“We can always look at stats and say Virat’s stats were not as good abroad, especially because of England, he really struggled there. But I still feel he looked confident and played the all-round, well-balanced cricket that’s needed to succeed abroad and inspired a lot of youngsters around him. He took what he learnt from Sachin and took it forward. His record is not as good as Sachin away from home but we don’t always look at stats, especially not me. And that’s what I meant with showing the new generation of cricketers how the way forward should look like. Staying fit, leading by example, having the all-round game,” AB de Villiers cocnluded.
