Watch: Babar Azam opens up on comparison with Virat Kohli
What's the story?
Pakistan's batting sensation, Babar Azam is often compared to Indian skipper, Virat Kohli for his distinctive batting style and ability to score runs on a consistent basis. Kohli, having achieved a lot already in his career, is an inspirational figure in the cricket world today and several cricketers try to follow his footsteps.
However, Babar believes that it's unfair to compare him with the legend as he is still a fresher and has to work further to reach the level Kohli operates at.
In case you didn't know...
Soon after his international debut, Babar became an important part of Pakistan batting line-up. The right-handed batsman smashed three consecutive ODI hundreds against West Indies when he was just a few months old in international cricket. He has thereafter been quite consistent with the bat for Pakistan in almost all the three formats.
Last year, the 24-year-old became the fastest to reach 1000 T20I runs and also joined Sir Viv Richards and Kevin Pietersen as the quickest to 1000 ODI runs as well, cruising past Virat Kohli.
The heart of the matter
With these astonishing numbers to his name, Babar gets compared to Kohli over and again. However, Babar himself doesn't think that he is worthy enough to be compared to the Indian captain yet. While talking at an event ahead of Pakistan Super League (PSL), Azam said that he is no way near Virat. He said,
"Whenever you hear, people compare me with Virat Kohli. I think he is a very big player, I am not even close to him. I have just started while he has achieved a lot. I have to achieve and if I perform like that you can compare but not now,” he said.
Here is the video:
What's next?
Babar Azam is set to play for Karachi Kings as the Pakistan Super League gets underway quite shortly in Dubai.