Just like Cristiano Ronaldo vs Lionel Messi has been the hot debate in the world of football, there has often been a long-standing debate in cricket regarding who is a better batter between former India skipper Virat Kohli and Pakistan captain Babar Azam.
Notably, Kohli has arguably been the best batter the world has seen in recent times. The star cricketer, who was once called the ‘run machine’ made and broke numerous batting records. However, Kohli has not been up to the mark in the last couple of years and in the meantime, Azam has been hitting centuries at his will and is on a record-breaking spree. Babar has become the go-to player of the Green Army in recent years.
Meanwhile, Pakistan pacer Shaheen Afridi gave an interesting answer when asked about picking either Kohli or Babar during an interaction with ESPNcricinfo.
Afridi decided to play it safe and said, “I like both, yeah!”
Also, during the same Q & A session, Shaheen also picked his Pakistan teammate Mohammad Rizwan over England white-ball specialist Jos Buttler and Pakistan Super League over the Indian Premier League.
It is worth mentioning that Shaheen has never played in the IPL, which is now the world’s second most valued sporting league in terms of per match value. However, the sensational pacer captained Lahore Qalandars to their maiden Pakistan Super League title earlier this year.
Meanwhile, Afridi also refused to name his pick between Ronaldo and Messi during the Q & A session.
Talking about Kohli versus Azam, then it will be not logical to compare both the batters as 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. Moreover, Kohli has overall played 458 international matches while Babar Azam has played less than half of that in 202 games.
In fact, Babar Azam himself feels that there should not be any comparison between him and Team India’s legendary batter Kohli. However, the cricket fraternity often remains divided on the neverending ‘Kohli versus Babar’ debate.
