India batter Virat Kohli put all the criticism on hold after he roared back to form during the Asia Cup 2022 with a century against Afghanistan. He continued his form in the 2022 T20 World Cup and emerged as the highest run-scorer. Later, he showed his vintage batting style and brought up his much-awaited 29th Test ton against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in March this year. His batting often gets compared to Pakistan skipper Babar Azam, who is also rising as one of the most lethal batters in the world.
As all the teams now gearing up for the ODI World Cup, which will be held in India in October, the fans are excited to see the face-off between Virat and Babar. Speaking about the competition between the two batters, former Pakistan skipper Imran Khan made a bold prediction and stated that Babar has the potential to surpass Virat’s records.
“I haven’t recently seen cricket, but I believe that Virat Kohli and Babar Azam belong to the same class. Babar Azam can surpass Virat Kohli; he is that good, from what I have seen,” Imran told a local journalist, as quoted by Cricket Pakistan.
Notably, both Virat and Babar share a good bond off the field as they have been seen supporting each other during their tough times.
Earlier when Virat was battling a lean patch, Babar had posted a picture with the Indian batter and captioned it, “This too shall pass.”
Virat played an unbeaten knock of 82 runs off 53 balls against Pakistan in the T20 World Cup last year and helped India clinch a victory by four wickets. However, India were eliminated in the semi-finals while Pakistan finished as the runners-up.
Apart from his heroics in the international cricket, the 34-year-old batter also had a great outing in the IPL 2023. He smashed 639 runs in 14 matches, laced with two centuries and six half-centuries.
On the other hand, Babar has scored 3696 runs in 47 Test matches and 5089 runs in 100 ODIs. He has got nine tons in the longest format and 18 and three centuries in the ODI and T20I format.
Recently, Babar topped the list ahead of Virat Kohli and Steve Smith with the highest batting average at the number four batting spot in the Test format after playing a minimum number of 15 innings. He has a phenomenal average of 69.10 after playing 20 innings. During this period he has struck 8 half-centuries and four tons.
(With ANI Inputs)
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