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Younis Khan vs Virat Kohli (Test Comparison)

RidiculousMan

RidiculousMan

T20I Debutant
Joined
Aug 6, 2023
Runs
7,070
Both are legends of the game and for their country. Both shared ad era and at one point their careers did overlap.
Both batted at key no. 3 and 4 positions.

Younis Khan

118 Tests
10,099 Runs
52.05 Average
34 Hundreds
33 Fifties

Virat Kohli

123 Tests
9,230 Runs
46.85 Average
30 Hundreds
31 Fifties

Who was the better Test player in your view?
 
Really good comparison this.

Both were absolute beasts of the game in test cricket.

YK is the clear winner here. I just wish he was equally good at chasing. I remember a game or two where he bottled in a tense chase against the Aussies.
 
YK stomps, only rubbish Indian posters who live in lala land will pull up some metrics for kohli being superior in test cricket.

However yes in terms of legacy, as well as status in odi and t20 cricket kohli stomps
 
No comparison whatsoever.

Only deluded Indian fans have the audacity to compare a 46 averaging batsman with a 50+ averaging batsman.

India fans try to downplay Younis by chest-thumping over Kohli’s SENA record but funnily enough, South Africa is the only SENA country where Kohli has done better than Younis.

Younis retired nearly a decade ago, but even today he will probably be better vs spin than Kohli.
 
When you score less than 10k runs at a less than 47 average after 123 Tests while playing at number 4 which is the easiest position to bat in Test cricket, your fans are left with no choice but to play the “you cannot judge his impact by numbers” card.

I have a lot of respect for Kohli the Test captain and I feel he is under-appreciated even by some Indian fans. He has a strong case of being considered as the finest Asian Test captain ever, but as a Test batsman, he is arguably the biggest fraud in the history of this format given his stature & reputation.

Out of the 15 years of Test cricket that he has played, he has basically been a nothing batsman for 10 years.

He was nothing special from 2011 to 2014 and a completely clown from 2020 until his retirement.
 
mominsaigol said:
only rubbish Indian posters who live in lala land will pull up some metrics for kohli being superior in test cricket.
Click to expand...
A cricket journalist from my country Bangladesh just said "Virat Kohli is the ambassador of test cricket" in our most read newspaper just few moments ago.
 
Kohli is better in Australia and South Africa while Younis is better in Asia.

You can pick either in England or NZ and they will produce similar output.
 
no comparision, its like comparing azhar ali to sehwag cos the former had a few years average 60 odd. kohli is a white ball goat, but over his career hes an ok red ball player who had an amazing purple patch.
 
There should only be just 2 reasons to call a player a great if they don't end up with 10 K runs and/or have an average of less than 50.

1. If they average like Don Bradman
2. If they open the batting

Virat was neither. His record is comparable to VVS Laxman in Tests. He did have a great purple patch between 2013 - 2019 where he averaged 59 with 23 hundreds in 64 Tests. Either side of that purple patch he was good to mediocre. He was a great Test captain for India but just a good test batter. His last 6 years in Tests tarnished his legacy as a batter in the format.

I like Virat, he did a lot for Indian Test cricket but as a batter he should not be anywhere near any great of the game. Younis is far ahead as a batter in Tests to Virat. Virat is a GOAT LOI batter but just a good test batter.
 
giri26 said:
There should only be just 2 reasons to call a player a great if they don't end up with 10 K runs and/or have an average of less than 50.

1. If they average like Don Bradman
2. If they open the batting

Virat was neither. His record is comparable to VVS Laxman in Tests. He did have a great purple patch between 2013 - 2019 where he averaged 59 with 23 hundreds in 64 Tests. Either side of that purple patch he was good to mediocre. He was a great Test captain for India but just a good test batter. His last 6 years in Tests tarnished his legacy as a batter in the format.

I like Virat, he did a lot for Indian Test cricket but as a batter he should not be anywhere near any great of the game. Younis is far ahead as a batter in Tests to Virat. Virat is a GOAT LOI batter but just a good test batter.
Click to expand...
You contradicted yourself.

You claimed their only 2 reason to call a player great if they don't end up with a 50 avg and are at less then 10K runs.

1) Be like Bradman
2) If they open the batting.

Bradman avg 99? So he automatically doesn't fit the criteria of less then 50 lol. Secondly Bradman has the most amount of runs all time when you compare the no of games he's played.

No batter has 6996 runs in 52 test games, that's a record based of the no of games he's actually played in and to top it off he has over 28,000 FC runs and this was in an era where fc was more commonly played then International.

As for opening, their dozens of test openers who avg 50+, Hayden, Sunny etc etc. So not really an excuse, but yes Opening is the hardest position to play in test cricket.
 
With Kohli's retirement, 1 thing has been established that Younis had a better test career than Kohli... No??
 
mominsaigol said:
You contradicted yourself.

You claimed their only 2 reason to call a player great if they don't end up with a 50 avg and are at less then 10K runs.

1) Be like Bradman
2) If they open the batting.

Bradman avg 99? So he automatically doesn't fit the criteria of less then 50 lol. Secondly Bradman has the most amount of runs all time when you compare the no of games he's played.

No batter has 6996 runs in 52 test games, that's a record based of the no of games he's actually played in and to top it off he has over 28,000 FC runs and this was in an era where fc was more commonly played then International.

As for opening, their dozens of test openers who avg 50+, Hayden, Sunny etc etc. So not really an excuse, but yes Opening is the hardest position to play in test cricket.
Click to expand...
Let me clarify my statement, I meant if you haven't scored 10 K runs after playing for 15 years, you at least have a higher average. Virat Kohli neither scored 10k + runs nor did he average 50+. He failed on both counts. He had enough opportunity to do so. 123 Tests isn't a small number. Batters who are considered greats of the game achieved 10K runs in fewer Tests than Virat. Virat lost his desire to play Test cricket in 2020/21. I know that he left the Australian tour midway for the birth of his child, fair enough as he should but since then his career nosedived.

I would call Graeme Smith a great even though his record is similar to Virat's because he was an opener and opening in SA is tough. I would also rate A Cook higher than Virat because he has 12K runs as an opener at an average of 45. Those are the openers I am talking about. Openers from some countries find it harder to average 50+ in Tests because of the pitches the bat on. No offence to Hayden but he played in a era where Australian pitches were the flattest and he struggled to score runs in SA, England and NZ but was very good against spin.

Bradman might have scored 6996 runs but normally people don't look at how many Tests a player played unless he has a record like Bradman. The runs or the average is all that matters. If you ask someone how many Tests Border played or Lara played etc, people, even their fans will not be able to tell you but they all know that they scored 10K + runs and averaged 50+. Virat did not achieve either. Even though Mahela Jayawardane did not average 50, his 11K runs puts him ahead of Virat.

Either you score a lot of runs at a good average or you have a very high average. If you don't have either, you can still be a good player but not a great. Virat falls into Azhar & Laxman category for India, does not fall into Sachin, Gavaskar & Dravid category unfortunately. If Virat had retired with 9200 runs at an average of 50+, i will have no issues calling him a great and considering how good a test captain he was, I would have put him ahead of Younis. People said Sachin Tendulkar who scored almost 16K runs at 53.78 underachieved, not sure what they will call Virat. But again Virat fans are calling him a martyr on social media. Virat has been struggling for 6 years and he should have retired the day he lost his captaincy. He brought nothing to the Test team after his captaincy stint.
 
BouncerGuy said:
Agreed... Indians might not like this but I think this makes sense... Kohli was not a great Test batter like these guys you mentioned...
Click to expand...
Any Indian fan with even a little bit of knowledge of the game would not call Virat a great in Tests. The people who are calling him that are either the fan boys who have no knowledge of the game or people who are trying to get some mileage using this retirement announcement.
 
giri26 said:
Any Indian fan with even a little bit of knowledge of the game would not call Virat a great in Tests. The people who are calling him that are either the fan boys who have no knowledge of the game or people who are trying to get some mileage using this retirement announcement.
Click to expand...
As a batter YK is much superior batsman in test. People calling him great is because of the long purple patch and successful captaincy. Just a good batsman and did score some tough runs in tough conditions so he wasn't that bad either.
 
BouncerGuy said:
Agreed... Indians might not like this but I think this makes sense... Kohli was not a great Test batter like these guys you mentioned...
Click to expand...
Kohli is obviously top tier in modern day cricket if one count all form.Only AB De Villiers is above him since Villiers test career along with t20 career was better than Kohli and some might say his Odi too.But rest Fab4 are only better than him in test and not in t20 or Odi.
 
Just go to youtube and watch Virat bat in 2014 - 2018 , in 34 innings he made six double hundreds. Have a look at how he batted against Johnson in the 2014 series.
 
Justcrazy said:
Just go to youtube and watch Virat bat in 2014 - 2018 , in 34 innings he made six double hundreds. Have a look at how he batted against Johnson in the 2014 series.
Click to expand...
Kohli's 2018 is the highlight of his test career, scored in tough conditions and thrived in SEA.
 
During Mohammad Amir’s 2016 England tour, he averaged a lot more than what Kohli averaged during the 2014 series.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Kohli missed the atleast 20 test matches vs pakistan, else he will have average more than 50 .Like shehwag had avg against pak 100.
 
Virat lost interest in Tests from 2019 onwards and there was no will to improve on his flaws. In 2014 after the England tour Virat went out of the way to seek help but during his recent slump which went on for 6 years, there wasn't any attempt to do better. He was done long time ago, this announcement was long time coming. May be Rohit retiring gave him the nudge to do it himself. When he pulled out from the county games he was supposed to play ahead of the 2020/21 series in England, I knew that Virat was done for good from Tests as a batter. The only reason he was still tolerated was because he was still a good Test captain. When he lost his captaincy after the South Africa tour few months later, he should have retired. He just prolonged his career 4 more years which tarnished his legacy as a batter in Tests.
 
Who has the superior record against the best team in the world, Australia ? That should settle the debate.
 
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