What Misbah-ul-Haq said on Kohli, Babar Azam comparisons

Earlier Salman Butt had also spoken about the Kohli-Azam comparisons and said, “Both are world class cricketers and top-notch performers. But there’s no comparison with Virat Kohli at this point of his career."

Babar Azam and Virat Kohli walk out for toss at the 2021 T20 World Cup. (SOURCE: FILE)

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Former Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq tried to shut down comparisons between Virat Kohli and Pakistan’s Babar Azam by saying that both batsmen are in different stages of their career currently.

Azam recently won the ICC men’s player of the year as well as the ICC men’s ODI player for the year of 2022. The award came on the back of 2600 runs scored across all three formats – a feat that was achieved thanks to eight fifty-plus innings’ across nine ODI matches. Azam also took Pakistan into the Asia Cup and T20 World Cup finals.

Saying that Azam was just starting out, and that his career should be judged on the basis of that, Misbah said to paktv.tv, “There shouldn’t be a comparison between the two. Kohli has played a lot of cricket, Babar is just starting. When Babar will play the same amount of cricket, then you can make a comparison. Kohli has played more cricket, and no one can match him at the moment. Yes, Babar is a class player and he might achieve the same things as Kohli in the future, but at the moment, comparison between the two doesn’t make sense because it’s just a start for Babar.”

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Kohli had won the accolade of being ICC’s ODI player of the year twice back in 2017 and 18. Azam now has a staggering average of 59.4 in ODIs and has the fourth highest runs in T20s with 3355 scored in 99 matches.

Earlier Salman Butt had also spoken about the Kohli-Azam comparisons and said, “Both are world class cricketers and top-notch performers. But there’s no comparison with Virat Kohli at this point of his career. Kohli has scored 74 international tons and he hasn’t scored a hundred in three years. Now you can imagine the magnitude of his performances,” Butt said to paktv.tv.

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