Virat Kohli has arguably been the best batter the world has seen in recent times, breaking numerous batting records on his way to superstardom. However, his performances in the last couple of years have dipped a bit and at the same time a new contender for the best batter has emerged — Babar Azam. The Pakistan captain has been a run-scoring spree in recent times, notching records with each passing game. It’s only natural that people make comparisons between the two batters. Babar Azam’s Pakistan teammate Shaheen Shah Afridi was also asked to pick one between the two in a video posted on ESPNcricinfo.
And like many of us, Pakistan’s star pacer failed to pick one, instead saying: “I like both”.
Talking more about the Virat Kohli vs Babar Azam debate, it would also be unfair to compare them when both are in different spectrums of their career. While Kohli is 33, Babar Azam is 27 years old and is just starting to hit top gear.
Virat Kohli has been there and done that, and has not much left to prove anymore. Kohli has overall played 458 international matches while Babar Azam has played less than half of that in 202 games.
In the past year, Babar Azam has been in sparkling form and has been head and shoulders above the rest.
In the ongoing ODI series against the West Indies, Babar, after his knock of 103 in the opening ODI, became the fastest batter to score 1,000 ODI runs as captain, surpassing Virat Kohli Kohli’s record.
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While Kohli took 17 innings to touch the 1,000 runs milestone as skipper, Babar achieved the same feat in just 13 innings.
In the very next match, Babar was once against amongst the runs, scoring a fine half-century, his sixth consecutive in ODIs and ninth on the trot across formats.
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