Young Pakistani batsman Babar Azam is often compared to Indian skipper Virat Kohli. That is purely because the right-handed batsman has shown consistency in across formats and proved his dexterity, especially in white-ball cricket.
Kohli, on the other hand, completely owns modern-day cricket. Currently, he is the only batsman to average over 50 in all formats. Under his leadership, Team India is also at the top spot in the ICC Test Championship standings with 360 points.
Fans also have a diverse opinion regarding who is a better batsman between Kohli and Babar. Some believe that the Delhi-born is far ahead from the young Pakistani talent, while some say that Babar is better than Kohli, at least in the limited-over format.
A similar question was asked to England’s spinner Adil Rashid when he took part in an interview. Unlike the trend, the leg-spinner picked Babar over Kohli and said considering the current form, Babar is ahead of the Indian megastar.
“Ahhh… it’s a tough one. Well, it’s a tough one. So you got to go on the current form… I think I got to go for Babar Azam on current form. I am taking form here…I say Babar Azam is in better form, so I picked Babar Azam. But they both are world-class players anyway,” said Rashid during an interview with ‘At the Crease TV’.
The point that Rashid referred to is the current form of Kohli. Since the Indian maestro has built a status for being a run machine over the years in all formats, if he performs just below his standard, fans raise their eyebrows straight away.
Kohli’s recent show in New Zealand has put the attention on his form. His consistency and habit of making big scores has placed him in a zone that even when the 31-year-old scores a half-century and gets out, it looks like a failure.
At present, Babar is sitting at the fifth position in ICC Test batting rankings, after Steve Smith, Kohli, Marnus Labuschagne, and Kane Williamson. In One-Day Internationals (ODIs), the Lahore-born is just behind Kohli and Rohit Sharma at the third place, while in T20 Internationals the 25-year-old is ahead of everyone at the top spot.
