Babar Azam does remind me very much of Virat Kohli: Tom Moody

In an exclusive conversation on Star Sports show “Game Plan”, former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar and former Australian cricketer Tom Moody discussed the similarities and differences between the two great players in modern-day cricket, Virat Kohli and Babar Azam, in terms of their qualities in the 50-over format game. Former Australian cricketer Tom Moody also expressed his thoughts on Babar Azam's role as the captain of the Pakistan team for the upcoming Asia Cup 2023. 

Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar spoke about the qualities of Virat Kohli and Babar Azam by drawing a comparison, he said “Absolutely, and we can expect that to happen again. Just one thing that you know people like Tendulkar and Virat Kohli have had to deal with that they've had long careers and they sort of have spanned over 10 to 15 years and anytime there's been a rising star, he's been compared to a guy who's been in the race for a long time. So sometimes it can be a little unfair but the greatness of these two guys is that they maintain that standard that the best performance of a rising player is equated with it.”

He further added, “Yes, both very good players. One obviously in his prime younger but coming to these kind of platform we want to say Virat Kohli and see with the format that we have here not the T20 format, Asia Cup this time round you might just see a bit Babar Azam and maybe show his place as well.”

Former Australia cricketer Tom Moody spoke about the similarities between Virat Kohli and Babar Azam, he said, “I Think absolutely he is. He does remind me very much of Virat Kohli, the way he goes about his business. He plays authentic cricket shots. He seems to understand, read the game very well, which Kohli has done for over a decade. He is a good chaser as well like Virat Kohli has proven to be over many many years. So, there's so much likeness between the two and I wouldn't go as far as saying that Virat is gonna have a better Asia Cup than Babar Azam, but they both can have equal pressure on them and it's gonna be a delight to watch them both bat because they are box office.” 

Tom Moody further spoke on the role Babar Azam as the captain of Pakistan team, he said, “Well, the captaincy for any captain in any Asian team is always a very challenging one. The microscope is very much on every single captain and every single move and suddenly you've got so many experts out there when you do make a move that maybe not be the right move at the time but I think that he's still dealing with the growing pressures of captaincy there's no question of that.

So, you know, he'll only continue to get better. He is also got around him, I mentioned the experience of this Pakistan side now he's also got a lot of experience around him and a lot of players that have been in captaincy roles whether that be in franchise cricket or in their domestic cricket, so he's got a lot of strong leadership pillars around which I'm sure he'll draw upon.”