Babar Azam better than Virat Kohli; Shaheen Afridi better than Jasprit Bumrah: Aaqib Javed

Lahore Qalandars’ head coach and former Pakistani pacer Aqib Javed opened up about the long-running debate of Virat Kohli versus Babar Azam.

Javed said that Azam is way ahead of Kohli and added that the Pakistani star is at the peak of his career. He shared his opinion based on the two players performing across all formats currently, and feels that Azam has been conquering across formats, whereas Kohli is going through a rough patch.

“Now I think Babar is ahead. He [Kohli] had his peak but now going down. But Babar, on the other hand, is going up,” the 49-year-old was quoted by Cricket Pakistan. Azam is currently the top-ranked batter in the ODI and T20I format in the ICC Rankings. His performance in the longest format of the game has helped him make a place in the top-five Test batters list.

Shaheen Afridi and Mohammad Rizwan better than Jasprit Bumrah and Rishabh Pant: Aaqib Javed

Javed also shared his opinion on the better pacer between Shaheen Shah Afridi and Jasprit Bumrah. Both Afridi and Bumrah are in the top-five Test bowlers in the ICC rankings, and the two have been phenomenal in red-ball cricket.

“I now think that Shaheen is better than Bumrah because when Shaheen came into the international circuit Bumrah had already established himself and the critics used to say that Bumrah is doing well in Tests, T20Is, and so but now Shaheen has proved he is even better and has more capacity than Bumrah,” he added.

Javed had one more comparison to draw out between wicketkeeper-batters Rishabh Pant and Mohammad Rizwan. While the former is a part of the IPL 2022 currently, the latter is playing the County Championship 2022 in England.

“Rizwan is better than Pant these days. There is no doubt that Pant is an extremely skillful player but the way Rizwan takes the responsibility, Pant is well behind him. It is often said that Pant is an aggressive player, but the aggressiveness doesn’t mean to hit a couple of big shots and got out but to stay at the crease, fight, and finish the game,” Aqib concluded.