India’s star batter Virat Kohli heaped praise on Pakistan cricket team captain Babar Azam when he chatted with Star Sports on the strong rivalry between the players.
The cricket world is excitedly anticipating a major battle between India and Pakistan during the Asia Cup 2023 on September 02 in Kandy. This match is regarded as one of the biggest rivalries in cricket history. Fans from both sides are getting excited, talking and comparing the squads. One of the most talked-about parallels is between the great batsmen, Virat Kohli and Babar Azam.
Even though people compare these two players intensively, they actually have a lot of respect for each other. They have openly voiced this appreciation several times. Back in 2022, before the Asia Cup, Virat Kohli told about how he first met Babar during a match between India and Pakistan in the 2019 World Cup.
“The first interaction I had with him [Babar] was during the 2019 [ODI] World Cup after the game in Manchester. I’ve known Imad [Wasim] since the Under-19 World Cup, and he said Babar wanted to have a chat. We sat down and spoke about the game,” said Kohli on Star Sports.
Speaking further, the batting superstar Virat Kohli stated that Pakistan’s star batsman has a lot of respect for him from day one and called him the top batter across formats.
“I saw a lot of regard and respect from him from day one, and that hasn’t changed. Regardless of the fact he’s probably the top batsman in the world across formats, and rightly so. Performs so consistently and I’ve always enjoyed watching him play,” he added.
Because they are the top batsmen on their respective teams, Kohli and Babar are frequently contrasted. From 2020 to 2022, when Kohli was struggling, Babar overtook him in the batting rankings for all three categories of cricket matches. Babar overtook Kohli as the best hitter in One Day Internationals (ODIs) in 2021, moving up to the top position.
Babar also maintained the top spot among Twenty20 International (T20I) batsmen for 1155 days—a longer period than Kohli (1013 days), who had previously held the record. Babar beat Kohli’s record in June 2022. The 28-year-old was honored by the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 2022 and got honors for being the best ODI cricketer of the year and overall cricketer of the year as a result of his outstanding performance over the previous two years.
