Matthew Hayden believes that Babar Azam is ahead in the debate for Kohli vs Babar. (Image: AFP)
Australian batting legend, Matthew Hayden weighed in on the debate between Kohli vs Babar and believes that the Pakistani batter is ahead in the race at the moment.
Australian World Cup winner and batting legend, Matthew Hayden weighed in on the highly contested debate on Virat Kohli vs Babar Azam where the batter made some bold claims.
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It is evident that both Virat Kohli and Babar Azam are amongst the best batters across the three formats and lead the batting units of their respective sides. Both their displays for the national team in the fifty-over format have been a topic of discussion for pundits and fans alike.
According to OneCricket, Hayden praised Babar as a champion batter and said that he believes the Pakistan skipper is leading at the moment against Kohli. He also believes that Babar will get back to his best form in the crucial fixture against Sri Lanka for a spot in the finals of the Asia Cup 2023.
He was quoted by OneCricket saying, “Babar Azam is a champion. He comes back from these things time and time again because that’s what champions do. When you think about the statistical comparison at the same stage, Virat Kohli vs Babar Azam, Babar Azam is actually leading that shoot-out match.”
Both Kohli and Azam share a fantastic record in the ODI format. Kohli has 279 matches under his belt and recently crossed 13,000 runs in the format with an outstanding average of 57.39. Babar on the other hand has played 108 matches with 5409 runs whilst averaging 58.16.
Hayden also added,” So that’s how significant he is to the Pakistani team lineup and I am sure that he can do it in this shoot-out against Sri Lanka. Babar is central not only because he is the captain but he is absolutely central in terms of the talent of that batting unit.”
From statistics alone, it is clear that Kohli has had a longer career with consistently performing for India. His records are self-explanatory but Azam seems to be following a similar trajectory and could be in the same realm provided he is able to garner consistent performances for Pakistan.
Time will only tell us who will have had the better career with Kohli coming closer towards the latter stages of his career while Babar is still relatively young and has a long way to go to establish himself as a legend of the sport. But he is taking big strides by taking the number one rankings in ODI for batting and being in the top 5 for the other two formats as well. It is just a matter of time before we get to see who would have had the better career as a batter for their respective sides.