Many cricket fans and experts are impressed with the incredible consistent batting of Indian captain Virat Kohli for a long time. While many believe that Kohli is the best batsman in the present time, former Australian cricketer Tom Moody feels that Pakistan cricketer Babar Azam is very special and he is very sure about his immense success in the international career.
The 31-year-old Virat Kohli has maintained the consistency in his batting for a long time as the right-handed batsman has the batting average of over 50 in each international format after playing 86 Tests, 248 ODIs and 82 T20Is. At present, he is the no.1-ranked ODI batsman, no.2-ranked Test batsman and no.10-ranked T20I batsman.
However, Tom Moody recently praised the 25-year-old Babar Azam who is currently the no.1-ranked T20I batsman, no.3-ranked ODI batsman and no.5-ranked T20I batsman.
According to cricketpakistan.com.pk, Moody said in The Pitch Side Experts Podcast, “He (Babar) has emerged over the last year or so into something that is going to be so special. We talked about how Virat Kohli is so good on the eye as a batsman. If you think Virat Kohli is good to watch, have a look at Babar Azam bat. My gosh, he is something special.”
After making his international debut in 2005, Babar has played 26 Tests, 74 ODIs and 38 T20Is where his batting averages are 45.12, 54.17 and 50.72 respectively. Moody is sure that Babar will be counted as one of the top five batsmen in the next five to ten years.
Moody added, “I think in the next five to ten years, he will definitely be in your top five (batsmen of the decade) without a question.”
It is very hard to justify him at that position given his statistics: Tom Moody during his talk about Virat Kohli vs Babar Azam
Talking about their Test career, while Kohli has the home and away batting averages of 68.42 and 44.36 respectively, Babar’s home-cum-neutral and away batting averages are 62.13 and 35.30 respectively. However, Moody has claimed that their statistics are not showing the actual picture.
Moody said, “I think at the moment, it is very hard to justify him at that position given his statistics. Away from home, he is only averaging 37 and at home, he is averaging 67. But we have to consider that he has hardly played away from home and a lot of those games away were during the early part of his career.”