The cricketing world is often split into a debate between Pakistan's captain Babar Azam and Indian star Virat Kohli. Abdul Razzaq, one of the most sought-after all-rounders in Pakistan Cricket history, gave his two cents on this debate in a recent interview.
Razzaq believes that there is a gap between the two players and spoke about how Azam will have to work a lot on certain aspects to get to the level of the Indian batsman. The former Pakistan all-rounder mentioned the need for Babar Azam to improve his fitness and potentially reach the levels of Virat Kohli in the future.
He said, “Kohli is a world-class player, Babar is too. But Kohli’s fitness is way better than Babar’s. The main thing is that his fitness is world-class. Babar Azam’s fitness is not like that of Virat Kohli. Babar needs to work more on his fitness.”
Abdul Razzaq talked about the batting standards set by Virat Kohli and Babar Azam over the years and stated that “Babar is Pakistan’s number one player. Babar is in fact the world's number 1 batter (In the ODI format). Be it in any format of the game, Test, ODI, or T20I, he has been consistently performing well. Every country has one player like them (Kohli and Azam).”
When specifically asked about Kohli, Razzaq had this to say about the Indian batting maestro, “Virat is an outstanding and fantastic player. The best part is that he takes his team along. His intent is always positive. He utilises his skills very well”.
Also, he also stated his displeasure about the constant need of fans to compare both Virat Kohli and Babar Azam. “We don’t need to compare them. It’s like asking, who is better, Kapil Dev or Imran Khan? These comparisons are not good.” concluded Abdul Razzaq.
