‘He has just started to play International cricket’ – Salman Butt burns down Ricky Ponting for comparing Suryakumar Yadav with AB de Villiers
Suryakumar Yadav is climbing up the ladder quite fast in the white-ball format. He is becoming one of the most reliable players for India of late. And his performances have been fantastic over the past year. From opening the innings in the T20I series against West Indies to holding the fort in the middle order, he has done it all.
Ricky Ponting, earlier, opined that the batter resembles AB de Villiers and went on to say that he can become the next AB de Villiers. However, former Pakistan cricketer Salman Butt has other ideas. The 38-year-old opined that the Australian legend was too quick to come up with the comparison. Albeit he acknowledged the talent of the Indian youngster, the Pakistani cricketer was not too happy with comparing him to South African.
The Lahore-based former cricketer added that the aura of de Villiers is significant and said that the impact is unmatchable. He was happy to admit Yadav’s talent but disagreed with Ponting’s opinion.
“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. There is Root, Williamson, Kohli as well who has been world no.1 batter and has scored incredible hundreds. Rohit Sharma on his day has scored 250 runs in ODIs. So, maybe Ponting had a jet lag,” Butt said in a video uploaded on his YouTube channel.
You can maybe compare him with Viv Richards: Salman Butt
The 38-year-old further highlighted on the fact that the Indian star batter is yet to feature in a big tournament. Butt was open to compare the youngster to Viv Richards. He said that the Australian legend must have waited a bit more before coming up with the comment.
“He has just started to play International cricket. He has talent and has played well. But comparing him straight to AB de Villiers? Ponting should have waited a bit more. He is yet to play in big tournaments. The fact is that there hasn’t been a player like AB de Villiers. You can maybe compare him with Viv Richards,” Butt concluded.
