The Pakistan cricket team coach, Mickey Arthur, has given a big statement as the latter has compared Babar Azam with the Indian skipper Virat Kohli, who is probably in form of his life, both as a player and as a captain. Showering praises on Babar Azam, Arthur said, “He’s a young guy who will be an exceptional player,” said Arthur. “I’ll go so far as to say, at the same age, I reckon, he’s as good as Virat Kohli, which I know that’s high praise but he’s right up there.
I think we’ve become better and better as the series has gone on. We arrived straight from Dubai to five days of rain in Nelson so we didn’t get any training or practice game, which was completely rained out. And there was an earthquake as well,” Arthur said.
“We almost went into the first Test match pretty cold, played OK there and we’ve played a lot better in this (second) Test match. Had this series gone another Test match we would have been the better for conditions. Hopefully, this has put us in good stead for what we can experience in Australia,” he added.
Babar Azam was perhaps the only batsman in the series for Pakistan who stood against the odds making a name for himself. He played a gutsy innings of 90* in the first innings of the second Test, Azam showed that he is the horse of the long race. He ended as the highest run scorer for Pakistan by virtue of scoring 142 runs at an average of 47.33. Pakistan lost the series by a margin of 0-2.
Babar Azam made his Test debut against West Indies in October this year where he replaced an injured Younis Khan. He grabbed the opportunity by scoring 69 runs in the first innings followed by an innings of 21 in the second innings. He was dropped for the next two games as Younis Khan made his comeback with the team.
Babar Azam is one of the products of Under 19 levels as he was the captain of Pakistan U-19 during the 2012 U-19 World Cup. He led his team to the quarter-final stage before Indian bowlers scored 13 crucial runs in 14 overs in a low-scoring thriller. Azam took his time at domestic level and made international debut in the year 2015. He has a long way to go before comparing him with Virat Kohli. He still to prove his credentials and Australia will be a perfect platform where one can judge whether he is to that level or not.
The first Test between Australia and Pakistan starts from December 15 at Brisbane which will be played with a pink ball.