Babar Azam is a talented cricketer, he will break many world records: Shoaib Akhtar

For the past couple of years, Babar Azam has taken giant strides at the international level. With the bat, the right-handed player has done exceedingly well. Azam’s performance in all three formats has been compared to the likes of top players from across the globe. 

One of the most popular debates nowadays is between Virat Kohli and Babar Azam. Even though Kohli has been playing for more than a decade, Azam’s career graph is sort of like Kohli. The two batsmen have exceedingly great records in ODIs and T20Is. Azam didn’t have a great Test record but since last year, he seems to have cracked the skill of playing red-ball cricket as well. 

It’s not right to compare them: Shoaib Akhtar on Virat Kohli-Babar Azam debate

In a recent interaction on Helo app, former fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar opened up on the Kohli-Babar debate and gave his opinion. The ex-cricketer said that Azam has set the target of reaching the achievements of Kohli, Kane Williamson and Joe Root. He also named Haider Ali, a young batsman as a great talent. He also predicted that Ali will play international cricket soon.

“Babar Azam is a very talented cricketer. He has set a target to reach the likes of Virat Kohli, Joe Root, Kane Williamson. There’s also a guy named Haider Ali, he will soon play for Pakistan, he’s also an exceptional batsman,” Akhtar said. 

Further talking about the debate between Babar and Kohli, Akhtar said it won’t be fair to compare the two players. He pointed out that the Indian team plays much more than Pakistan which is why their records are going to differ. 

“Both Virat Kohli and Babar Azam are classic players, but it’s not right to compare them as Pakistan plays a fewer number of Tests, ODIs compared to India. Their commitment makes me believe that they both will break many world records in future. But, it’s not fair to compare them.”

One similarity between the two batsmen is the fact that they have averages way above 50 in both T20Is and ODIs. There is no other batsman in the world with this record. It should be noted though, that Kohli’s Test average is also above 50, while Azam who hasn’t played a lot of Test matches yet averages 45.