NEW DELHI: Sri Lankan great Mahela Jayawardene has tremendous respect for the legendary bowlers he faced in his heydays but feels the current lot of pacers and spinners is up against better batting units.
Former captain Jayawardene played as many as 652 international matches across formats during a career spanning close to two decades.
At the peak of his career, international cricket was flooded with world-class bowlers, something many feel is not the case now.
“We are yet to see if the current crop of bowlers will hit the numbers that their predecessors did… The present bowlers are probably up against better batting units,” Jayawardene said during an ESPNcricinfo videocast with Sanjay Manjrekar.
On facing bowling attacks across two decades, the legendary batsman said, “If you look at the top 10 wicket-takers in modern day cricket all of them played in that era (first half of his career).
“I missed out on Walsh and Kapil as I started just after that.
“There was (Mutthiah) Murali ( Muralitharan), (Shane) Warne, (Glenn) McGrath, Anil (Kumble), Bhajji (Harbhajan Singh), Saqlain (Mushtaq), Wasim (Akram), Waqar (Younis), their numbers speak for themselves.
“The bowlers I faced in my career improved tremendously over the years.” (AGENCIES)
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