Throughout the years, there have been many great batsmen from various nations. All of them have left a mark on us with their tremendous performances. When talking about the great batsmen over the years, the names that will pop-up in your head might be Sir Vivian Richards, Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, and many others. Similarly, when we talk about the 21st century, especially the mid to late 2000s, the first name that pops-up as the greatest batsman is none other than Virat Kohli. He has broken records all over the world and has shown time and time again why he is the greatest batsman of today. Another upcoming great batsman of today's modern era is Babar Azam. Even though he started his career much later than Virat Kohli, he is swiftly reaching great heights and is currently in the top ICC rankings. Now, there arises a comparison that who is better out of the two, Virat Kohli or Babar Azam? Here are some stats that might help in reaching a conclusion:
- One of the most obvious comparison is that Virat Kohli made his debut in international cricket, much earlier than Babar Azam. Kohli played his first international match in an ODI against Sri Lanka on the 18th of August, 2008. Whereas, Babar Azam made his international debut in an ODI match against Zimbabwe on the 31st of May, 2015.
- So far, Virat Kohli has stacked up 25,385 runs in international cricket with an average of 53.44 and a strike rate of 79.32 and also has 75 international centuries under his belt, making him the second only, after Sachin Tendulkar, to have the most centuries. Babar Azam on the other hand, has only stacked up 12,270 runs at an average of 49.00 and a strike rate of 81.08. In addition, Babar Azam only has 30 international centuries at the moment.
- When talking about franchise cricket, both these batsman are at the top with the most runs. Virat Kohli in IPL has 7,263 runs at an average of 37.2 and a strike rate of 130.00 and has 7 centuries under his belt. Babar Azam is highest run scorer in the PSL with 2,935 runs, at an average of 43.80 and a strike rate of 124.84 with just 1 century under his belt.
Therefore, even though Babar Azam is at the top currently for the past couple of years, comparing him to a great like Virat Kohli is inappropriate at the moment as there is a huge gap in there stats and it will take a lot of time for Babar Azam to reach at the level where Virat Kohli is at the moment.
Hope this answers your question.
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