Virat Kohli vs Babar Azam: Waqar Younis, Shoaib Malik, Misbah-Ul Haq give their verdict after T20 World Cup show

The never-ending debate on who’s the better batter between Virat Kohli and Babar Azam tilted in favour of the Pakistan captain in recent months, especially in the shortest format of the game, as his flawless form in the build-up to the World Cup kept him among the upper echelons of the T20 Batting rankings.

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However, Kohli’s recent heroics at the T20 World Cup has shown that he is a man of the big occasion and made many cricket experts regain their trust in him as the best following a stupendous knock against Pakistan in India’s Super 12 opener.

Speaking on the Virat Kohli vs Babar Azam comparison, some of the famed Pakistani cricketers reassessed their verdict on who’s better between the two while speaking on Pakistan sports channel A Sports.

Misbah Ul Haq

“The biggest difference I can see at the moment is Virat Kohli becomes a different player when he starts facing more and more deliveries. His strike rate only goes up and he becomes a very dangerous player after playing 15-16 balls. Babar Azam needs to do the same thing because we have often seen Babar’s strike rate go down after the first six overs. For a match-winning innings, you need to do it like Virat.”

Shoaib Malik

“The difference between both of the class batters is Virat Kohli knows how to play in pockets. It’s a big difference, Virat only plays his shot where there are no fielders, he won’t look to hit a six where a fielder is standing. It shows he has trained a lot and worked on his shot to execute it to perfection. That’s why his success rate is so high.”

Waqar Younis

Waqar Younis concurred with Shoaib Malik and said that playing in pockets makes Virat safer from losing wickets.

“Playing in the pocket shows that he knows how to play the safe shots. And the biggest difference between them in T20s is Virat is not afraid to use his bottom hand. He is not afraid of going over the top.

“Babar is a classic batsman and looks very elegant while batting but in T20 cricket you need to take the game to the bowler by going over the top. If you are batting at No. 1 or No. 2, you have to take the risk by going over the top and finding the gap otherwise you will play too many dots and put pressure on yourself.”

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