Babar Azam defeats Virat Kohli in ICC's best cover drive poll

It goes without saying Babar Azam has been a fulcrum of the Pakistan batting over the last four years or so. At the present point in time, he averages in excess of 50 in ODIs and T20Is with 12 centuries and 40.93. Even in Test cricket, the Lahore-born has over 2,000 runs at an average of 44.29. Overall, the right-handed batsman has as many as 17 tons and 47 half-centuries to show for his efforts.

On the back of his stupendous shows with the bat at the highest level, he has been made the skipper of the national team across the three formats. Recently, in the opening Test against South Africa, Pakistan, under the leadership of Babar, won by seven wickets at the National Stadium in Karachi. Though he failed with the bat in the first innings, he scored 30 runs in the second innings.

Babar Azam gets past his Indian counterpart

In the meantime, Babar beat Virat Kohli, the Indian skipper, in a poll conducted by the International Cricket Council (ICC). The apex cricket board conducted a poll, asking whose cover drive among Kohli, Babar, Joe Root, and Kane Williamson are the best. Even as Kane and Root didn’t get a lot of votes, the competition was mostly between Virat and Babar.

The poll was a closely fought one as Babar and Virat toppled each other quite a few times, but it was the Pakistan captain, who came out trumps. And Azam edged Kohli out by a margin of 0.1 per cent votes. While Kohli had 45.9 per cent people in his favour, Babar got the support of 46 per cent. Kane and Root, on the other hand, had 7.1 and 1.1 per cent votes respectively.

Here’s ICC’s tweet: –

Who get's your vote?

Reply with your answer if you have another player in mind 🤔

— ICC (@ICC) February 3, 2021

As far as Virat is concerned, the 32-year-old has ruled the roost over the years as far international cricket is concerned. He has always featured among the top 10 in the rankings. He is also touted to break a number of records created by Sachin Tendulkar at the highest level. The Delhi-born has become a father recently and is currently leading India in the Test series against England, led by Root.