“You have two new balls. You have made the rules stricter. You give so much leverage to batsmen nowadays. You now allow three reviews. If we had three reviews during the time of Sachin, he would have made 1 lakh runs!” Akhtar said on his official YouTube channel.
The former Pakistan fast bowler also added that he pitied Sachin as he played against the toughest bowlers of his time.
“I really pity him. The reason I pity Sachin is he initially played against Wasim (Akram) and Waqar (Younis), he played against Shane Warne, then he faced (Brett) Lee and Shoaib (Akhtar), and later he played the next generation of fast bowlers. That's why I call him a very tough batsman,” said Akhtar.
“It's very batting-oriented cricket nowadays. Earlier, As a batsman, even you would enjoy fast bowlers approaching you with hair flying, bowling bouncers.”
{{/usCountry}}“It's very batting-oriented cricket nowadays. Earlier, As a batsman, even you would enjoy fast bowlers approaching you with hair flying, bowling bouncers.”
{{/usCountry}}Shastri, responding to his criticism of the modern game, suggested a tweak in rule and also added that the quantity of games is more than what the players in his era used to play.
“If you've to balance, you shouldn't restrict an over to 2 bouncers. Increase them. The reason why I say this is because it's exciting,” said Shastri.
“The volume (is also a factor). There was no T20 cricket at our time. There were 12-13-14 Test matches a year. Bowlers used to be fitter. If the same bowler is playing all three formats this time, what you expect out of him in actual red-ball format will not be the same. He will perform for one or two or three years, but then he will be out of petrol.”