Former Pakistan captain Salman Butt believes Ricky Ponting erred in comparing Suryakumar Yadav to former South African sensation AB de Villiers. Ponting was full of praise for Suryakumar, who is now rated second in the ICC T20I rankings. Ponting stated during the ICC review that Surykumar’s 360-degree batting style reminded him of de Villiers. However, Ponting’s remarks did not sit well with Butt, who believes that the world has never seen a batter of de Villiers’ level.
“No one in recent history, in my opinion, has ever played cricket like AB de Villiers. Because of the influence he had, other teams realised that if they couldn’t get rid of him, they couldn’t win the game. There’s Root, Williamson, and Kohli, all of whom have been the world’s best batters and hit tremendous hundreds. On his day, Rohit Sharma has scored 250 runs in ODIs. So Ponting may have suffered from jet lag “Butt stated this in a video posted on his YouTube account.
Butt thought Ponting should have waited for Suryakumar to show himself in important events before drawing this comparison.
“He has only recently begun to play international cricket. He has potential and has performed admirably. But to compare him to AB de Villiers? Ponting should’ve waited a little longer. He has yet to compete in major competitions. There hasn’t been a player like AB de Villiers before. You might compare him to Viv Richards “Butt went on to say.
