Khurram Manzoor, the Pakistani batsman who featured in 16 Tests, 7 ODIs and 3 T20Is between 2008 and 2016, has appeared in the news headlines recently – only because of his comments that in List-A cricket he has a better conversion rate than India’s Virat Kohli.
“I am not comparing myself with Virat Kohli. Fact is, in 50-overs cricket, whoever is there in the top 10, I am the world no.1, after me stands Kohli. My conversion rate in List A cricket is better than him,” Khurram said on YouTube channel of Nadir Ali.
Khurram Manzoor, the right-handed opening batsman, raised 3 fifties and 0 centuries in 7 ODIs. In domestic cricket, though, Khurram Manzoor is an accomplished batsman. Talking about List-A cricket, which he himself has been speaking about, Khurram Manzoor has raised 27 hundreds and 39 fifties – he’s converted 27 of his 66 fifty-plus scores in List-A cricket into hundreds.
While there’s no comparison between List-A cricket and ODI cricket, as Khurram Manzoor did when speaking of Kohli, just for the sake of it: Virat Kohli has converted 50 of his 122 fifty-plus scores into centuries, and 46 of them are ODI hundreds.
“He scores a century every six innings. I score a century in every 5.68 innings. And based on my average of 53, over the last 10 years, I am ranked fifth in the world in List A cricket,” Khurram added.
Senior Indian journalist Vikrant Gupta slammed the senseless comparison made by Khurram Manzoor with Virat Kohli, the player of the Decade goneby and arguably the greatest ODI batsman of all time.
“Makes no sense for him to draw comparisons with @imVkohli. At best he can do that with Pakistani players only. One international 100 vs Virat’s 74 is oranges vs lemons. His grouse, if any should be with Pak selectors,” Vikrant Gupta tweeted on Khurram Manzoor’s statement video.
Meanwhile, Virat Kohli, who has smashed three ODI centuries in the last two months, has been rested from the T20I series against New Zealand, starting Friday. Kohli will return in India colors during the 4 Test series against Australia.
