Former Pakistan all-rounder Abdul Razzaq has said that his “baby bowler” comment on Indian quick Jasprit Bumrah was misconstrued, and that he was merely comparing him to the likes of Glenn McGrath, Wasim Akram, Curtly Ambrose and Shoaib Akhtar.

Last year, Razzaq had said that he would have easily dominated Bumrah, having faced some of the most illustrious modern-day fast bowlers. “I have played against great bowlers like Glenn McGrath and Wasim Akram, so Bumrah is a baby bowler in front of me and I could have easily dominated and attacked him,” Razzaq had been quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.

On Friday, Razzaq told Press Trust of India that his statements had been misinterpreted and that he had “nothing personal” against the Indian bowler. “I was simply comparing him with the likes of Glenn McGrath, Wasim Akram, Curtly Ambrose, Shoaib Akhtar,” Razzaq said. “I do not have anything personal against Bumrah.

“It would have been much tougher to face them. My comments were misconstrued. He [ Bumrah ] is heading towards becoming a world-class bowler. But in our times, the bowlers were of much higher calibre. Not many can dispute that.”

Razzaq, who represented Pakistan in 343 international games from 1996 to 2011, went on to say that the level of the game had gone down from the standards a decade-and-a-half ago, blaming the T20 revolution for the ongoing “bad patch”.

“You don’t feel the same pressure facing the current crop of pacers. Overall, there is a bad patch in world cricket. We are not producing world-class players the way we used to 10-15 years ago. You had Tendulkar, Zaheer, Sehwag, Ganguly in the same team. They would have walked into any team. Maybe, too much T20 cricket is responsible for this decline,” he said.