Virat Kohli on the left and Babar Azam on the right. (FILE) India’s Virat Kohli and Pakistan’s Babar Azam have always been compared constantly to each other by many. Though both have been playing crucial roles for their nations the debate of who is better than the other rumbles on.
Recently former players Sanjay Manjrekar and Tom Moody have given their opinion on what they think about the superstars.
“Yes, both very good players. One obviously in his prime younger but coming to these kind of platform we want to say Virat Kohli and see with the format that we have here not the T20 format, Asia Cup this time round you might just see a bit Babar Azam and maybe show his place as well,” told Manjrekar speaking to Star Sports.
Babar in played just 108 ODIs compared to Kohli’s 275. The former is averaging 58.4 with 5142 runs in the format and the latter is on 57.3 with 12898 runs.
Though both have been piling up runs and are aesthetically a joy to watch when they are playing at the top of their games Kohli has had the reputation of being a chase master. However, Moody believes Babar is also good at run chases.
“I Think absolutely he is. He does remind me very much of Virat Kohli, the way he goes about his business. He plays authentic cricket shots. He seems to understand, read the game very well, which Kohli has done for over a decade. He is a good chaser as well like Virat Kohli has proven to be over many many years. So, there’s so much likeness between the two and I wouldn’t go as far as saying that Virat is gonna have a better Asia Cup than Babar Azam, but they both can have equal pressure on them and it’s gonna be a delight to watch them both bat because they are box office.” tells Moody.
While Kohli has scored 7384 runs at an average of 64.20 while chasing Babar’s average of 56.65 runs with 2436 runs. The former’s abilities to maneuver the ball in the middle overs and change gears at the death makes him stand out. The latter though has shown the ability to rotate strike in the middle overs and is more of an accumulator of runs but is yet to show the acceleration under pressure situations similar to Indian Star.
Unlike Virat, Babar would be leading his side in the upcoming Asia Cup in Sri Lanka and Pakistan and the ICC Cricket World Cup in India. This may add a little more pressure on Babar however, he seems to relish the responsibility as he has scored 1783 runs at an average of 68.57 as skipper in ODIs while Kohli scored 5449 runs at an average of 72.65 during his tenure.
Nevertheless, the comparison between both players will continue throughout both tournaments as India will be facing Pakistan multiple times in the months to come.
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