Rohit Sharma and AB de Villiers are widely regarded as two of the most skilled batsmen in contemporary cricket.
Both of them have a variety of strokes in their arsenal and dominated the white-ball formats in the last decade.
However, former West Indies speedster Michael Holding reckons it is difficult for quality batsmen to play their natural shots against top pacers and thus he feels the likes of Rohit and De Villiers could have found it tough to get going against some of fastest bowlers who have played the game.
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"I think batsmen play their shots depending upon the pace of the bowlers. Those players and the shots that you are talking about I would like to see them play those shots against someone with real pace," Holding told Nikhil Naz during an Instagram live session when asked how he would have bowled to modern-day big hitters.
"Dale Steyn for instance or a Brett Lee or a Shoaib Akhtar. If they can play shots like that against that pace I'll start to worry about what I am going to do. With the kind of pace I used to bowl, I wouldn't be worried about those shots being played," he added.
Meanwhile, the ICC Cricket Committee recently recommended a ban on the traditional practice of using saliva to maintain the shine of the ball to avoid potential on-field COVID-19 spread.
Sharing his views on the same, Holding said: "First of all, I don't think this saliva ban is a serious problem. The problem with this ban is that the cricketers will take sometime to adjust. It's a natural reaction when you are on the field and you want to shine the ball, you use saliva."
Notably, the Anil Kumble-led committee saw no need to prohibit the use of sweat, which carries less risk of transmission, to polish the cricket ball.
Holding, 66, believes sweat can do the role of shining the ball as effectively as saliva.
"All you need to do is to get moisture on the ball and you can get that from your sweat. You don't have to use the usual saliva. The perspiration from your arm or your forehead will do the same job as saliva. And I've not heard anyone say that COVID-19 can be spread by perspiration.
"I don't think there is any practical problem in banning saliva. It's just a logistical problem of people being accustomed to do it and will have to practice not doing it," he remarked.
(With IANS inputs)
