Pakistan captain Babar Azam on Thursday won the ICC Men’s Cricketer of the Year award as well as the ODI Cricketer of the Year award for the second year in a row. The 28-year-old batsman, who scored 17 tons and 24 half-centuries in 95 ODIs, led Pakistan to the finals of the Asia Cup and T20 World Cup 2022. Many fans and experts often compare Babar with India’s star batsman Virat Kohli. , who was also awarded the ODI Cricketer of the Year in 2017 and 2018.
However, former Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq completely dismissed all the comparisons and said that both the players are in different phases of their careers and there is no point in comparing them.
“There should be no comparison between the two. Kohli has played a lot of cricket, Babar is just starting out. You can compare when Babar will play only this much cricket. Kohli has played more cricket and no one can match him at the moment.” misbah told paktv.tv,
“Yes, Babar is a class player and he can achieve things like Kohli in future, but at the moment comparison between the two makes no sense as it is just the beginning for Babar,” he added.
Notably, Kohli, who hasn’t scored a ton for over three years, ended his century drought in the Asia Cup against Afghanistan last year, scoring his first hundred in T20Is.
Since then, the 35-year-old hasn’t looked back, scoring three centuries in his last seven ODIs.
He is just three ODI tons away from equaling former India batsman Sachin Tendulkar’s (49) record for most centuries in the format.
Talking about Babar, he had a stellar year with the bat in 2021, scoring 679 runs in nine ODIs at an average of 84.87 with three hundreds in 2022. Babar is also the top-ranked batsman in the ODI rankings, a title he has firmly held since July 2021. Notably, under his leadership, Pakistan lost just one ODI in 2022.
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