Former Pakistan captain Mohammad Yousuf rates the Indian batting line-up of the great Sachin Tendulkar's times higher than their current top six, led by Virat Kohli across formats. At the heart of Yousuf's assessment is the belief that bowlers of Tendulkar's era were better than they are right now, a topic debated at length. 

WATCH - Wasim Akram names his favourites for Australia-India Test series 

"Kohli, Sharma, Pujara, (KL) Rahul are all quality batsmen but if I compare, the Indian batting (line-up) of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, (VVS) Laxman, (Sourav) Ganguly was better," he was quoted saying by PTI.

"You don’t have that sort of bowling quality nowadays, cricket has changed a lot and things are different now."

Yousuf also hailed Tendulkar, yet the game's highest Test and ODI run-maker, as the "most complete batsman" he has seen. 

"When I was playing for Pakistan there were many great batsmen in those days like Brian Lara, Pointing, Hayden but I always felt that Tendulkar was in every way the most complete batsmen," said the Pakistani batting great, who made 7,530 Test runs at an average of 52.29.

Himself among the most elegant batsmen of his era, Yousuf rates Kohli higher than his teammate, Rohit Sharma. 

“Kohli is very committed that is why he is so successful and he has already got runs in every cricket playing nation. I felt captaincy had only made him a better player," said Yousuf, who also thinks it's unfair for people to compare his country's rising young batsman, Babar Azam, with the contemporary Indian captain. 

"Kohli has played much more cricket than Babar who has only about three to four years of exposure in international cricket."

"But yes, if you ask me to make a comparison based on where Kohli stood after the same number of matches that Babar has played, I would say Babar has done better," he added.