While Kohli heads to the mid-30s, often considered the final phase of one’s career, Babar, at 26, has his best batting years ahead of him. Ranked sixth, first and third in Tests, ODIs and T20Is, respectively, he’s currently ranked ahead of Kohli in both the white-ball formats. There’s only the hunger.īabar is off to a dream start. There’s no compromise on fitness, and there’s no room for complacency.
Like Babar, Kohli also achieved it through consistency and hunger.Įven into his 30s, Kohli’s willingness to be the best version of himself sets him apart. For Kohli, the challenge was to create a mark for himself amid the plethora of Indian superstars. He achieved so with his grace and consistency. Not to forget, by 26, Kohli had won an ODI World Cup and Champions Trophy, where he made sizeable contributions.ĭespite the talent, it took a while for Babar to become a household name in the cricketing fraternity. By 26, Kohli had played almost twice the number of ODIs that Babar did and had equalled Sourav Ganguly’s century tally to be India’s joint second-highest century-getter in the format.Īlso, Kohli made his debut in a different era and at a much younger age, and therefore, the strike rate is commendable. Though Babar has been better with conversion rates in ODIs, Kohli’s numbers can be considered equally good. Virat Kohli vs Babar Azam at the age of 26-and-half Therefore, a comparison of similar ages will give us a more holistic picture. Though his numbers reflect good consistency, he was yet to hit his peak and become the batting monster he eventually became. In ODIs, Babar is a clear leader, but Kohli played his 80th match as a 23-year-old. Though Babar has dominated the T20I Rankings for a while, he’s still peaking in this format. Almost 29 then, he had won two Player of the Tournaments in the T20 World Cups and had hit his peak. In T20Is, Kohli dominates the numbers, but he was a more mature batter by the time he played his 51st match. Five out of the eight hundreds by Kohli had come away from the subcontinent. In contrast, Kohli by now had dominated opponents in the tough terrains of Australia, South Africa and New Zealand. Though Babar averages more in Tests at this point, he has a solitary century outside the subcontinent. It’s tough to put one over another because the above matches in Kohli’s charts across formats came at different junctures in his career.
It’s not just about the volume of runs they score it’s also about their alluring styles that make jaws drop. The comparison finds its foundation in their set benchmarks in terms of consistency through their conventional batting styles. He is an inspiration to many batters across the globe, and his success has now drawn comparisons with his Indian counterpart, Kohli, a man who has kept defying limits in this sport. It’s never easy for a side to keep up the momentum in international cricket by playing very little at their home.īarring the start of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) and their England sojourns in 2016 (Pakistan became the No.1 Test team for a brief while) and 2017 (Champions Trophy win), in recent years, Pakistan had little to celebrate in their most-loved sport.īeating the odds, Babar’s artistic batsmanship is now a new chapter in the annals of cricket. Since the terror attack on the Sri Lankan side in 2009 at Lahore, Pakistan has seen very little international cricket on their soil. Worse, even before the dreadful coronavirus dawned upon humankind, a generation of Pakistani stars played their home matches in empty stands, under scorching heat in the alien lands of Arabia as the administrators slogged to convince the world that it was safe. The achievement means a lot to Pakistan cricket that has been under the shadow of their illustrious neighbours and arch-nemesis India in the recent decades, struggling to re-invent their pristine past. Babar has now entered an elite list of Pakistani batters to attain the top rank in the ODI format after Zaheer Abbas (1983), Javed Miandad (1988) and Mohammad Yousuf (2003).
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