Babar Azam is very young, once he has retired you can sit down and start comparing him with others: Waqar Younis
India Today
Pakistan captain Babar Azam has registered 17 centuries in 89 ODI matches at a strike rate of 90.24. Under Babar's captaincy, Pakistan reached the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup 2021.
Former Pakistan cricketer Waqar Younis wants any comparison of Babar Azam with star batters should wait until the current captain finishes his career.
Babar, the No. 1 ranked ODI and T20I player, has been in sublime form this year. The 27-year-old has registered 17 centuries in 89 ODI matches at a strike rate of 90.24.
"Babar Azam in modern day cricket looks a million dollars and he is definitely as good as all the big names," Waqar told ICC Digital in Melbourne.
Interestingly, Babar, who is often compared with former India captain Virat Kohli, sits in fourth place on Test batters' chart, while Kohli slipped out of the top 10 list.
"But all those greats have their own strengths and their own class and all of them played in different eras and we should not forget that. Babar is still very young and has plenty of cricket ahead of him and once he has retired you can perhaps sit down and start comparing him with others."
Waqar further said that Pakistan have the potential to go all the way and win the T20 World Cup 2022. The global event, hosted by Australia, will begin in October. Pakistan have won the coveted trophy only once, when the Men in Green defeated Sri Lanka by eight wickets at Lord's in 2009.
"We stand a really good chance of doing well at this World Cup. The pitches in Australia are generally very good batting pitches and Pakistan do have good batters who can really play well in these conditions," the former cricketer said.
