"Not too many can argue"- Simon Doull believes Babar Azam is 'best player in the world'
Pakistan captain Babar Azam continues to grow from strength to strength across formats, but especially in white-ball cricket after his sensational series against the West Indies.
The 27-year-old already has 17 ODI hundreds and five Test hundreds to his name and seems to be batting in a completely different league. He even garnered praise from the cricketing fraternity, including former New Zealand pacer Simon Doull.
While commentating on air during Day 3 of the third Test between England and New Zealand, here's what Doull had to say about Babar:
βNot too many can argue that Babar Azam is probably the best player in the world at the moment. As far as batting in that top order is concerned, he is unbelievable. Joe Root has got an argument for that, but when you talk about the Big-4, at the moment, he is the big one.β
Babar Azam is on the road to greatness: Ian Bishop
Former West Indies cricketer Ian Bishop is known for his astute analysis and even hailed the way Babar has progressed in his career.
While speaking to Cricwick, Bishop stated that while the 27-year-old wasn't already a 'great', he has almost overtaken the stature of Virat Kohli in ODIs. He said:
"Babar Azam is on the road to greatness. I want to be clear when I say 'on the road to...', in the white-ball cricket at least, and certainly in fifty overs. I don't use the term βgreatβ loosely. It has to be a bigger sample size to bestow greatness on a player, but his average, as we speak now, (is) on the cusp on 60 with 17 ODI hundreds. He has almost overtaken his next door neighbour, the great Virat Kohli, in terms of the ultimate uber fifty-over batsman."
Pakistan will next play a couple of Tests away against Sri Lanka beginning July 16