The cricket fans and experts often debate the comparison of Pakistani batsman Babar Azam with India captain Virat Kohli. The emergence of Babar has seen him directly labelled as the next big thing in the cricketing world, and some fans even term him as the Kohli of Pakistan cricket.
Meanwhile, former Australia cricketer Tom Moody has dropped his opinion on the red-hot topic.
While speaking on The Pitch Side Experts Podcast featuring former West Indies cricketer Ian Bishop and cricket analyst Freddie Wilde, Moody said that Babar is an exceptional talent and would rise into top five batsmen in the future.
“He [Babar] has emerged over the last year or so into something that is going to be so special. We talked about how Virat Kohli is so good on the eye as a batsman. If you think Virat Kohli is good to watch, have a look at Babar Azam bat. My gosh, he is something special,” said Moody.
“I think in the next five to ten years, he will definitely be in your top five [batsmen of the decade] without a question,” the 54-year-old added.
The former Australian coach also expressed that Babar’s current numbers don’t put him in the top five categories as compared to already established batsmen, but in the next decade, he will undoubtedly sail into the list of top-performing batters.
“I think, in the next 5-10 years, he will be in your top five positions. Even though he [Babar] has played 26 matches but in half of those matches, he was not considered even part of the main batting line-up for Pakistan. He was the after-thought down the order,” Moody added further.
“I think at the moment; it is tough to justify him at that position given his statistics. Away from home, he is only averaging 37, and at home, he is averaging 67. But we have to consider that he has hardly played away from home and a lot of those games away were during the early part of his career,” concluded Moody.
At present, Babar is sitting at the fifth position in ICC Test batting rankings, after Steve Smith, Virat Kohli, Marnus Labuschagne, and Kane Williamson. In One-Day International (ODI) format, Babar is just behind Kohli and Rohit Sharma at the third place, while in T20 Internationals (T20Is) the 25-year-old is ahead of everyone at the top spot.
