Mohammad Yousuf calls Babar Azam a 'class act', Kohli 'great player'

During a recent Twitter interaction with fans Yousuf was asked to name best captain in white-ball cricket at the moment and the Pakistan legend picked New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson

Former Pakistan cricketer Mohammad Yousuf has called his compatriot and swashbuckling batsman Babar Azam as a class player.
 
During a recent Twitter interaction with fans, Yousuf was asked about his opinion on Azam by a fan and the right-handed batsman said, "Class Player". 

Azam has so far played 26 Tests, 74 ODIs and 38 T20Is for Pakistan in which he has scored 1,850, 3,359, and 1,471 runs, respectively.

The 25-year-old cricketer made his One Day International debut against Zimbabwe in 2015 while his Test debut came in 2016 against West Indies.

 
The right-handed batsman, who made his T20I debut in September 2016 is currently the number one ranked cricketer in the shortest format of the game. In ODIs, Azam is at the third spot only after Indian skipper Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. 

Kohli has so far played 86 Tests, 248 ODIs and 82 T20Is for India in which he has scored 7240, 11867 and 2794 runs respectively. File photo: PTI

Virat Kohli a great player, no.1 at the moment: Yousuf

During live interaction with fans on Twitter, Yousuf was asked to describe Kohli by a fan and the former Pakistan batsman said: "No 1 at the moment. Great player." 

Kohli has so far played 86 Tests, 248 ODIs and 82 T20Is for India in which he has scored 7240, 11867 and 2794 runs respectively. In fact, his highest ODI score of 183 also came against Pakistan in 2012.

Yousuf was also asked to name who is a better captain in white-ball cricket at the moment and the Pakistan legend picked New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson.

Yousuf -- who is the fourth highest run-getter for Pakistan in Tests -- was recently asked to pick the number one between Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis and Kumar Sangakkara. And the 45-year-old had picked Tendulkar as No.1 followed by Lara, Ponting, Kallis and Sangakkara.

Earlier, the former Pakistan batsman had said that current crop of cricketers cannot be compared to Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and other stars from the past.

Yousuf, the former Pakistan player was himself an excellent batsman. He had represented the country in 90 Tests, 288 ODIs and three T20Is.

 "In the past, teams such as India, Australia and South Africa had three-four quality players in the side. India, for example, had players like (Rahul) Dravid, Sachin (Tendulkar), (Virender) Sehwag, (Sourav) Ganguly, (VVS) Laxman and Yuvraj Singh. These six batsmen were playing in a single team," Yousuf said during a TV show as quoted by Cricket Pakistan.
 
"The current Indian team does not have such batsmen. You can't compare the current players with the class of Sachin and Dravid," he said.