South African legend AB de Villiers has issued a clarification after drawing backlash for his assessment rating Virat Kohli above Sachin Tendulkar in bouncy, seam-friendly overseas conditions.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, de Villiers recently suggested that while Tendulkar was a pioneer for subcontinent batters, Kohli pushed the standard higher.
"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," the former Proteas captain had said.
While de Villiers praised Kohli for "raising the bar", career data heavily favors Tendulkar in overseas conditions, which has highlighted by several fans and analysts on social media.
After his views triggered outrage, AB de Villiers clarified his stance in a newly released video on his YouTube channel.
"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," de Villiers stated.
De Villiers explicitly acknowledged that Kohli's numbers away from home are not as impressive as those of Tendulkar, but he prefers to look at things beyond statistics.
"We can always look at stats and say Virat's stats were not as good abroad, especially because of England, where he really struggled. 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's 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. Staying fit, leading by example, having the all-round game," he further remarked.
Sachin Tendulkar scored 8,705 runs in 106 away Test matches, maintaining an exceptional average of 54.7 with 29 centuries. On the other hand, Virat Kohli amassed 4,894 runs from 68 Tests on foreign soil with a notably lower average of 41.51, including 16 hundreds.
