‘Virat Kohli has 70 international tons, Michael Vaughan has none in ODIs’ – Salman Butt opines on the Englishman ‘stirring up’ debates

Salman Butt, the veteran Pakistan cricketer, has criticised former England skipper Michael Vaughan for ‘stirring up’ unnecessary debates. Recently, Vaughan stated that New Zealand captain Kane Williamson would have been the greatest cricketer in the world if he was an Indian. The retired Brits’ right-handed batter lauded Kane for his calm and composed character.

Butt was critical of Vaughan, comparing the latter’s numbers with Virat Kohli, the Indian skipper. After Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting, Kohli is third on the list of most centuries at the highest level.

Even as Butt lauded Vaughan for his captaincy, he reckoned that the Englishman’s batting wasn’t at par with the 32-year-old Virat. Butt put forth his opinions on his YouTube channel.

Besides, people have a lot of time to stretch a topic: Salman Butt    

“Kohli belongs to a county that has a huge population. On top of that, his performance is better too. Virat has 70 international tons at the moment, no other batsman from this era has that many.

“And he has, for a long period, dominated the batting rankings because his performances have been outstanding. So, I don’t understand what and where is the need to draw comparisons,” Butt said.

“And who has compared the two? Michael Vaughan. He was a brilliant captain for England, but the beauty at which he used to bat, his output wasn’t on par. He was a good Test batsman but Vaughan never scored a single century in ODIs.

“Now, as an opener, if you haven’t scored a century, it’s not worth discussion. It’s just that he has a knack for saying things that stir up a debate. Besides, people have a lot of time to stretch a topic,” he added.

Though Vaughan couldn’t score a century in the ODI format, he had 18 tons to his name from 82 Test matches. Overall, he notched over 7,600 runs for the Three Lions in a career that spanned eight years from 1999 to 2007.

As far as Butt is concerned, he played 33 Tests, 78 ODIs and 24 T20Is for Pakistan before the spot-fixing scandal at the Lord’s turned his career upside down.