Former Pakistan cricketer Ramiz Raja believes Babar Azam has the potential to become a world-beater and surpass Indian skipper Virat Kohli in terms of achievements in international cricket. Babar has been one of the most consistent run-getters across formats for Pakistan in the past couple of years and has also been handed over captaincy in T20Is.
Azam has come a long way since making his debut for Pakistan in 2015, Babar has come a long way in establishing himself as one of the best batsmen of the current generation. He is the number one ranked batsman in T20Is ahead of the likes of KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, India skipper Kohli and others.
“For Babar Azam, [the] sky is the limit. Until and unless he gets the environment which is encouraging and engaging, he won’t be able to live up to his potential,” former Pakistan cricketer-turned commentator Raja was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
“He has the potential to even beat Virat Kohli but he needs to free up [his mind] and not think about losing. As soon as he does that and thinks about scoring runs and winning, he will remain a great player for a very long time,” he added.
However, Babar has a long way to go to catch up with Kohli, who is the number one batsman in ODIs and sits at the second spot in the Test rankings for batsmen. Kohli is the fastest to complete 10,000 runs in ODI cricket having achieved the feat in just 205 innings. He currently averages over 50 across all three formats and is on his way to earning the tag of a modern-day legend.
