Former Pakistan captain Salman Butt believes Ricky Ponting’s comparison of Indian batsman Suryakumar Yadav with former African cricketer AB de Villiers was wrong. Yadav, who is currently ranked second among batters in the ICC T20I rankings, received nothing but praise from Ponting. Recently, he had said that Suryakumar Yadav’s 360-degree batting style reminds him of de Villiers.
But Salman butt disagreed with Ponting’s statement as he believes that no other batsman can match de Villiers’ talent. Yadav is growing very fast in the white ball format after making his debut and in T20 cricket, his stats tell everything. While playing against England last month, he scored a scintillating century, while he batted well in the recently concluded West Indies series as well.
After listening to that statement of Ponting, Salman Butt has given his reaction. Butt said on his YouTube channel, “The kind of cricket AB de Villiers played, I feel no one in even recent history has ever played like him. The kind of impact he had, opposition teams knew that if you cannot dismiss him you cannot win the match.”
He further said that Root is there, Williamson, Kohli has also been the No 1 batsman in the world and he has played some incredible innings and even that Rohit Sharma has scored 250 runs in ODIs on his day and added that Ponting looks tired and made that statement.
Suryakumar Yadav has been named in the Indian team’s squad for the upcoming Asia Cup 2022 which will start from 27th of August. India’s first match will be against arch-rivals Pakistan on August 28. Meanwhile, everyone hopes that he will be a part of the playing XI in that match, Butt feels that before making this comparison, Ponting should have waited for Suryakumar Yadav’s performance in major tournaments.
Butt further said that Suryakumar has just started playing international cricket and has talent and a good game, but comparing him directly with AB de Villiers is not the time now. He added that Ponting should have waited a little longer as he is yet to play in a big tournament. He continued that there is no player like AB de Villiers and he can be compared to the legend of the game Viv Richards.