Michael Clarke names Babar Azam the ‘Virat Kohli of Pakistan’

Pakistan’s young superstar Babar Azam has been gaining a lot of praise for his performance in recent matches. Due to his promising potential, former Australian captain Michael Clarke is the latest to name Babar Azam the “Virat Kohli” of Pakistan.

“Babar Azam is real class no doubt about that. For me, he’s the Virat Kohli of Pakistan’s line-up. If Pakistan wants to qualify for the semi-finals or final, a lot will depend on his young shoulders,” Clarke said during commentary in Pakistan’s first warm-up game against Afghanistan on Friday.

Azam tried to hold the team together and scored a mighty 112 off 108 balls until Afghanistan bowled out Pakistan for 262 in 47.5 overs.

Babar Azam is at the top of his game. He is the world’s number one ranked T20I batsman and is at number seven in the ICC’s ODI rankings. He reached 1000 ODI runs in 21 innings, equaling the record with West Indian legend Sir Viv Richards, England duo of Kevin Pietersen and Jonathan Trott, and South Africa’s Quinton de Kock. Fakhar Zaman broke that record just last year.

The 24-year old was also the fastest batsman to reach 1,000 T20I runs in 26 innings, breaking Virat Kohli’s record in the process.

Azam has given a lot of hope to the Pakistan team and nation with his potential. In the recent five-match ODI series against England, he scored 80, 115, 15, 51 and 16. The batsman is in a league of his own and being compared to Kohli is nothing new for him. Even though his career is only more than a 100 matches long, the right-handed batsman has singlehandedly led the Pakistan team to victories even in slow conditions such as in the United Arab Emirates.

“We have some serious batsmen in our team but he has the ability to be as good as anyone in the world,” Arthur recently remarked about Azam. “If he’s getting us a 100, we’re comfortable we have the batsmen around him to get 300-320.

“Over the last two years, his strike rate is around 80 and he knows he needs to increase that, as do some of the other batsmen and we’ve spoken about that.”

The fact however remains that Pakistan need to work on scoring more runs and at a better strike rate, and some notable totals don’t guarantee a good performance in the upcoming World Cup.

“If I can be number one in the world without power hitting, then I don’t need power hitting, but when I need to, I utilise it well,” Azam reassured.

“My individual role is to take the innings as deep as I can and perform in a way that benefits the team most.”