Babar Azam is the best all-round batter in the world right now: Michael Vaughan

Former England captain Michael Vaughan picked Pakistan skipper Babar Azam as the best all-around batter across formats at the moment after the latter’s recent monumental knock against Australia. Pakistan was set a daunting target of 506 in their fourth innings to win the second Test at the National Stadium in Karachi and it looked like the visitors, would run away with a victory easily.

However, the men in green batted out 171.4 overs on the last two days to settle for a draw. Azam who came in to bat when the score was 21 for 2 was involved in two big partnerships – a 228-run stand for the third wicket with Abdullah Shafique (96) and another 115-run partnership for the fifth wicket alongside Mohammad Rizwan.

Babar Azam, in the process, played a stellar knock of 196 in 425 deliveries and unfortunately, missed out on a well deserved double century by just four runs. The Pakistan skipper has been in the spotlight in recent times for not being as consistent as he used to be and his leadership stint in the PSL 2022 also attracted a lot of criticism.

However, he came back with a strong performance against a high-quality Australian bowling attack and helped his side to draw the Karachi Test. It has to be noted that Pakistan were all out for just 148 in their first innings and conceded a lead of 408 runs which speaks volumes about their grit and efforts in the second innings.

Babar is brilliant across all formats, says Vaughan

Vaughan has been closely following Babar Azam for a long time and he took it to Twitter to pick the latter as the best batter in international cricket at the moment. The 27-year-old is currently number one in ICC rankings in ODIs and T20Is and has been in the top ten in the Test format.

“Without question I think @babarazam258 is the best all-round Batter in the World right now .. Brilliant across all the formats .. #PAKvAUS,” tweeted Vaughan.