Probably the youngest one too. IIRC, Tendulkar scored his 17th ton in 1998 when he would have been 25. Whole world is talking about whether Kohli at this stage is better than Tendulkar of the late 90s but the way Bailey has been playing Aussies wouldn't help but debate if Bailey < Bevan.
I don`t think even with these stats Kohli would compare favorably with Tendulkar of 90s. The bowling attacks in the 90s were 10x better than today, the rules not as stacked in the favor of batsmen and generally more challenging wickets. Even in India, pitches were`nt flat but used to turn in the 90s and assist reverse swing. A quick run through and the bowling attacks of the 90s included;
McGrath, Warne, Kasper, Gillespie, Fleming, Reifel (Australia)
Donald, Pollock, Klusener, Fanie De Villiers, Bryan McMillan, Symcox (SA)
Wasim, Waqar, Azhar Mahmood, Aaquib Javed, Saqlain, Shoaib Akhtar, Mushtaq Ahmed (Pakistan)
Bishop, Ambrose, Walsh, Franklyn Rose, Merve Dillon, Rawl Lewis (WI)
Cairns, Shane O Connor, Geoff Allot, Nash, Vettori (NZ)
Vaas, Murali, Pushpakumara, Zoysa, Dharmasena (SL)
Brandes, Olonga, Rennie, Whittal, Johnson, Streak, Strang (Zim)
Gough, Caddick, Cork, Alan Mullaly, Chris Lewis, Fraser, Phil Tufnell (Eng)
Kumble, Srinath, Prasad, Mohanty , Agarkar (India)
Even Kenya had promising bowlers like the Suji brothers, Asif Karim and co. In general the quality of cricket was a lot better than today. I don`t rate Kohli`s efforts as highly as Tendulkar of the 90s, purely because of this reason. Statistically, it might seem better than Tendulkar but if you have been watching cricket since the mid-90s to now, you would know the difference. Kohli has also benefited a lot from constantly playing against SL in the subcontinent and has really excelled at that. To be fair to him, he has done well in what has been asked of him so far. The real test would be in SA and the three tours of NZ, England and Australia next year. For the first time, this new bunch of Indian batsmen would be touring, not as apprentices but as senior batsmen. Either way, it is going to be exciting times in Indian cricket. Wish I could say the same about our bowling.
On an other note, it would be great to have sides from the 90s in DBC 14. That would be fun recreating some of those mid 90s tournaments.
. But honestly I think we are hardly missing him with Junaid and Irfan making up for him. Junaid may lack in talent as compared to Aamir but he is the most hardworking Pakistani quicky I have seen. He tried his heart out everytime he comes out to ball and that makes up for whatever little lack of talent he may have comparably.
