I am far behind Virat Kohli, I have a lot to achieve yet: Babar Azam

Babar Azam is one batsman who has become quite popular in the past few years. The right-handed batsman has taken giant strides in international cricket and become one of the top batsmen in the world. The Lahore-born batsman was recently also handed over the captaincy of the Pakistan ODI and T20I teams.

Babar’s recent success with the bat has created a place where many experts have been comparing him with the likes of Kane Williamson and Virat Kohli. Because Kohli is probably the best batsman in Asia, there are many conversations where you hear people comparing the two batters.

In a recent interaction with Harsha Bhogle on ‘Cricbuzz in Conversation with Babar Azam’, the batsman talked about this comparison. While talking about Kohli, Azam said that he is still quite far from being what Kohli is. He revealed that he is inspired to bat like him and win matches for Pakistan. Babar has already played 74 ODIs scoring 3359 runs at an average of 54.2. He has scored 11 centuries as well.

I will try to become a player like him: Babar Azam on Kohli

“He is one of the best players. I am far behind. I have a lot to achieve yet. I will try to become a player like him and win matches for Pakistan and create records,” Babar told Cricbuzz.

Compared to Kohli’s ODI record, the difference between him and Babar is quite huge. However, it can’t be denied that Kohli’s Pakistan counterpart is on the right track.

During the conversation, the 25-year-old batsman from Lahore also talked about the first time he had seen Shoaib Akhtar bowl. Azam was also part of the Pakistan U19 team which played in the U19 World Cup in 2010 and 2012. He described an incident from that time when Akhtar bowled to him.

“When I saw Shoaib Akhtar bowl for the first time, I realized how quick he was. There used to be U19 camps where they used to let us bat as well. Shoaib Bhai also used to come there occasionally. He used to bowl towards the end. Once he called me and told me that I had to block the deliveries and not drive. I blocked two balls and then hit a drive. Whenever he used to come there, he used to call me and bowl at me. While he used to bowl length deliveries to me, he once bowled a bouncer by mistake,” Azam said.

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