Babar Azam has almost overtaken Virat Kohli in 50-over format: Ian Bishop

Former West Indies cricketer Ian Bishop has lauded Pakistani skipper Babar Azam, who recently took the No. 1 spot in the ICC T20I and ODI Batters rankings, and stated that he has almost overtaken India’s Virat Kohli to become the ‘ultimate uber 50-over batter’ in the sport.

As per the famed pundit, the 27-year-old is on his way to glory, particularly in the 50-overs format, where he averages nearly 60 and has 17 centuries to his name. While Babar’s performance has been great, Kohli has battled to be at his finest.

“Babar Azam is on the road to greatness, And I want to be clear when I say on the road to it in white-ball cricket at least and certainly 50-overs cricket. Because I don’t use the term great loosely. I think I have discussed this with a couple of my colleagues 24 hours ago, it has to be a bigger sample size but average as it stands now, on the cusp of 60 with 17 ODI hundreds,” Bishop told Cricwick.

His Test cricket is a work in progress: Bishop

Azam has been in superb form for Pakistan, leading his team to a 3-0 ODI series victory against the West Indies recently. He already holds the distinction of hitting three consecutive ODI centuries twice in the format, but there have not been many remarkable performances from him in the Test format.

“He has almost overtaken his next-door neighbor, the great Virat Kohli, in terms of the ultimate uber 50-over batsman. His Test cricket is a work in progress. I’m surprised he hasn’t taken to Test cricket numbers a lot earlier. He’s starting to get better at it. Technically, he’s superb. In the future, I’m hoping he will be mentioned in the same breath in Test cricket as the top 3-4 players,” Bishop added.

Pakistan’s next international matches are scheduled against the Netherlands in August, with all three matches set to be played at Hazelaarweg in Rotterdam.