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The Asia Cup 2023, began on August 30 in Pakistan and Sri Lanka with Nepal taking on Pakistan. Former South Africa ace AB de Villiers, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest batters of all time, has picked Kohli or Azam to top the run-scoring chart at the Asia Cup 2023.
Kohli and Azam have been two of the best batsmen in the world for the last few years and are expected to amass runs at the Asia Cup and World Cup 2023. Both batters have excelled in the ODI format over the years, becoming some of the best batsmen in the World.
Babar averages 59.47 in the format with 5353 runs under his belt and has already started the Asia Cup with a match-winning 151 against Nepal. The top-order batsman has 19 ODI hundreds, the second most for Pakistan in the format. Virat, on the other hand, has 12898 runs at an average of 57.32, scoring 46 ODI hundreds in the process, which is the second most in the format's history.
De Villiers was quizzed by a fan about who would be the leading runscorer at the Asia Cup and the World Cup, to which he replied that the high scorers would be the top-order batsmen as the middle-order batsmen don’t get sufficient balls. “We look at guys in form, Babar, I think of Kane Williamson, obviously Virat will be there somewhere along the line, it depends on form obviously with all these players,” he said.
He further heaped praise on his RCB teammate, saying, “Virat absolutely loves 50-over cricket. We can pull up his stats at some stage and realise it's the best stats around. So he is always there and thereabouts.”
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Mr. 360 further named South African batsmen Heinrich Klaasen and Aiden Markram as some of the contenders for the World Cup but opined that Markram hasn’t been in the best of form. De Villiers gave his final two contenders for the Asia Cup as he said, “My favourites for Asia Cup are definitely Virat and Babar.”
De Villiers further confirmed that he was never asked to join the RCB camp at the IPL 2023. He said that last year he was in contact with the team staff but wasn’t quite ready at the time. The finisher said that for now, he will work as a commentator, but he definitely didn’t rule out coming back to the IPL.
