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Misbah-ul-Haq had a rather blunt take when asked about the comparisons between Virat Kohli and Babar Azam. Pakistan captain Babar Azam won twin-ICC accolades earlier this week, when he was named the men’s player of the year as well as the men’s ODI player for 2022.
Babar Azam scored over 2,600 runs in international cricket across all formats last year, and scored 8 fifty-plus scores in nine ODI innings. In addition, the Pakistan skipper also led the side to finals in the Asia Cup 2022 and the T20 World Cup 2022.
With a second-consecutive ODI player of the year award under his belt, Babar Azam matched India great Virat Kohli’s feat, who achieved the accolades in 2017-18. Babar Azam’s batting prowess has led many to draw his comparisons with Virat Kohli but former Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq believes it’s too early to compare the two.
During an interaction with the media, Misbah-ul-Haq stated that Virat Kohli has played more cricket than Babar Azam, who is “just starting.”
“There shouldn’t be a comparison between the two. Kohli has played a lot of cricket, Babar is just starting. When Babar will play the same amount of cricket, then you can make a comparison. Kohli has played more cricket, and no one can match him at the moment. Yes, Babar is a class player and he might achieve the same things as Kohli in the future, but at the moment, comparison between the two doesn’t make sense because it’s just a start for Babar,” Misbah-ul-Haq said in a video.
Misbah-ul-Haq, who has served as Pakistan head coach and chief selector in the past, was disappointed with speculations over Babar Azam’s captaincy. The 48-year-old former batter also stated that is unfair to compare Babar Azam with legendary Indian batter Virat Kohli. However, Misbah-ul-Haq lauded Babar Azam’s consistency with the bat over the years.
Pakistan were recently whitewashed in a three-match Test series against England on home soil. They also drew two Tests with New Zealand following the England debacle.
Earlier, another former captain of Pakistan – Salman Butt – had also said that comparing the two would be like drawing parallels between ‘Wasim Akram and Shaheen Shah Afridi’, insisting that it is too early to deliver the verdict.
When former Pakistan captain Salman Butt was asked to compare the two cricketers Virat Kohli and Babar Azam on national television, he came up with a blunt response. Admitting that it is not right to compare the two as they are in different stages of their career, Salman Butt said Virat Kohli has 74 international hundreds despite having not scored one in three years.
“Both are world class cricketers and top-notch performers. But there’s no comparison with Virat Kohli at this point of his career. Kohli has scored 74 international tons and he didn’t score a hundred in three years. Now you can imagine the magnitude of his performances,” Salman Butt said.
Babar Azam has represented Pakistan in 47 Tests, 95 ODIs, and 99 T20Is so far. He boasts of an incredible average of 59.4 in the fifty-over format, and is currently the fourth-highest run-getter in T20Is (3,355). Virat Kohli, meanwhile, tops the chart among run-scorers in the shortest format (4,008), and has 74 international centuries to his name so far.
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