Pakistan wicketkeeper batsman Azam Khan has praised Babar Azam for changing Pakistan cricket with his brilliant cricket and once again compared his legacy with that of India great Virat Kohli. However, this claim in itself seems like an insult to many legendary Pakistani batsmen.
The debate over Indian cricket legend Virat Kohli and Pakistani batsman Babar Azam has been a never-ending debate among the fans of both the countries ever since both of them made their mark in international cricket.
Kohli has retired from two formats of international cricket, Test and T20I. The 37-year-old Indian cricketer made his international debut 17 years ago and has reached the final stages of his career. Babar Azam, on the other hand, made his debut much later and became Pakistan’s best batsman in the modern game.
Cricketer praises Babar Azam for change in Pakistan cricket
Star wicketkeeper batsman and Babar Azam’s teammate Azam Khan has said that Pakistan cricket, which was largely known for good fast bowlers, got recognition as a great batting unit because of Babar Azam.
Azam, while speaking on the Cricwick podcast, said, “Pakistan cricket was famous because of fast bowling. But this guy made it famous because of his batting. There is a huge difference. Like Virat Kohli did for India.”
However, it was an insult to some of Pakistan’s greatest ever batsmen, including the great Javed Miandad, Inzaman-ul-Haq, Younis Khan, Saeed Anwar, Mohammad Yousuf and Saleem Malik, who are among the leading run-scorers for Pakistan.
Virat Kohli had many legends, “but who was there for Babar?” Azam Khan said
Babar Azam and Kohli both are great cricketers with their own distinct strengths and weaknesses; However, no comparison can really be made between the two. Babar Azam is available to represent Pakistan in all formats, while Kohli is available only in the 50-over format.
Azam said, “There was someone around Virat Kohli who was a great player at that time. In the era when he started playing, they had VVS Laxman, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag and MS Dhoni. There were so many big batsmen. But who was with Babar? There was no one.”
In a highlight, Azam Khan has said that Babar Azam single-handedly led Pakistan to international cricket, while Kohli got the support and backing of many great Indian players since his debut.
Babar Azam has recently overtaken Indian greats as the highest run-scorer in T20Is
Although Babar Azam is far from having an illustrious career like the great Indian cricketer Kohli, he is far behind Virat’s extraordinary records of second most runs in ODI cricket, second most runs in cricket history and most ODI centuries.
However, recently, Babar Azam overtook former Indian legends Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in terms of scoring the most runs in the format in International T20 cricket. Babar had earlier overtaken Kohli to become the fastest to 1000 ODI runs and register the most 50+ scores in a calendar year in three years.
Also read: Ajit Agarkar talked about breaking friendship with Rohit Sharma and dropping Virat Kohli from the team!
