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Tom Moody compares Babar Azam with Virat Kohli

Pakistan and India will lock horns in the Asia Cup on September 2

By Web Desk

August 26, 2023

Former Australian cricketer Tom Moody compared Pakistan captain Babar Azam with India’s star batter Virat Kohli ahead of the Asia Cup 2023.

Moody said that Azam’s understanding of the game is very similar to Kohli.

“He [Babar] does remind me very much of Virat Kohli, the way he goes about his business. He plays authentic cricket shots. He seems to understand, read the game very well, which Kohli has done for over a decade. He is a good chaser as well like Virat Kohli has proven to be over many years. So, there's so much likeness between the two and I wouldn't go as far as saying that Virat is going to have a better Asia Cup than Babar Azam, but they both can have equal pressure on them and it's going to be a delight to watch them both bat because they are box office,” Moody said on Star Sports.

He also highlighted the challenging nature of leading an Asian side but was confident that Azam will get better with time.

“Well, the captaincy for any captain in any Asian team is always a very challenging one. The microscope is very much on every single captain and every single move and suddenly you've got so many experts out there when you do make a move that maybe not be the right move at the time but I think that he's still dealing with the growing pressures of captaincy there's no question of that,” he said.

“So, you know, he'll only continue to get better. He's also got a lot of experience around him and a lot of players that have been in captaincy roles whether that be in franchise cricket or in their domestic cricket, so he's got a lot of strong leadership pillars around which I'm sure he'll draw upon,” Moody added.

Complete schedule of Asia Cup

Group Stage

Aug 30 - Pakistan vs Nepal in Multan

Aug 31 - Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka in Kandy

Sept 2 - Pakistan vs India in Kandy

Sept 3 - Bangladesh vs Afghanistan in Lahore

Sept 4 - India vs Nepal in Kandy

Sept 5 - Afghanistan vs Sri Lanka in Lahore

Super 4s

Sept 6 - A1 vs B2 in Lahore

Sept 9 - B1 vs B2 in Colombo

Sept 10 - A1 vs A2 in Colombo