Babar Azam has almost overtaken Virat Kohli as the ultimate uber 50-over batter: Ian Bishop
India Today
Ian Bishop feels that Babar Azam is on the road to greatness and has almost overtaken Virat Kohli as the 'ultimate batter' in 50-over cricket.
West Indies cricket legend and commentator Ian Bishop feels that Pakistan captain and star batter Babar Azam has almost overtaken Virat Kohli as the 'ultimate uber 50-over batter' in the game.
Azam has been in fine form in white-ball cricket and has been one of the main factors behind Pakistan's resurgence in ODIs and T20Is. During a recent interaction with crickwick.net, Bishop said that the 27-year-old is on the road to greatness and has almost overtaken Kohli as the ultimate batter in 50-over cricket.
"Babar Azam is on the road to greatness. I want to be clear when I say 'on the road to...', in the white-ball cricket at least, and certainly in fifty overs. I don't use the term 'great' loosely. It has to be a bigger sample size to bestow greatness on a player, but his average, as we speak now, (is) on the cusp on 60 with 17 ODI hundreds. He has almost overtaken his next-door neighbour, the great Virat Kohli, in terms of the ultimate uber 50-over batter," commented Bishop.
The West Indies great also said that Azam's batting in Test cricket still has room for improvement and is a work in progress. He concluded by saying that he hopes the Pakistani captain will be one of the top players in red-ball cricket in the future.
"His Test cricket is a work in progress. I'm surprised he hasn't taken to Test cricket numbers a lot earlier. He's starting to get better at it. Technically, he's superb. In future, I'm hoping he will be mentioned in the same breath in Test cricket as the top 3-4 players," said Bishop.
Azam currently holds the top spot in the latest ICC ODI rankings for batters with the former Indian captain in the third spot. The 27-year-old also leads the way when it comes to the T20I rankings, with Kohli currently holding the 21st spot in the table.
