Former Pakistan head coach Mudassar Nazar backs Babar Azam and suggests him to score more Test centuries, in order to be considered among the greats of the game.
Mudassar Nazar Warns Babar Azam
Netizens always compare Pakistan captain Babar Azam with Indian great Virat Kohli and start the war on who is the better batter Virat or Babar. Many cricketers including Matthew Hayden, Abdul Razzaq explains the answer to the most debatable question.
While South African batter Faf du Plessis drew the similarities between Babar and Virat. But former Pakistan off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq believes Babar Azam has an edge over Virat Kohli for having a calm demeanour.
Pakistan captain Babar Azam faced lots of criticism over his captaincy for not being able to register a Test victory at home last year, but Salman Butt backs Babar Azam over his failures.
Notably, Former Pakistan spinner Danish Kaneria suggests that Babar shouldn’t be compared to Virat Kohli. Kaneria also termed Babar “a big zero” when it comes to captaincy.
Though he received mixed comments over his captaincy, Babar took out both the major men’s cricket award, the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy, as well as the Men’s ODI Cricketer of the Year in the ICC Awards 2022, beating competitive fields in both categories.
Though the hottest topic never seems to be answered perfectly, Nazar said that Babar needs to work on his conversion rate, while citing the example of England batter Joe Root, who also struggled to score centuries at one point in his career.
“If Babar continues to score runs in Test cricket likes he does in ODIs, then he will be considered among greats of the game. It is often seen that after scoring fifty in Test cricket, he fails to convert it into a century.Â
Joe Root was facing the same issue but he worked on it. Babar needs to do focus on the doing the same thing,” Nazar told Cricket Pakistan.
However, Nazar suggested that if Babar continues to perform at the highest level, the 28-year-old will finish his career as one of the greatest batters produced by Pakistan. The former head coach also added that he will need proper backing and support from the Pakistan Cricket Board in the future.
“Babar is only 28 years old. The rate at which he is going, he would end up as one of the best Pakistan batters ever, but for that he needs to be more focused. He also needs proper backing and support from PCB,” he added.
Babar Azam played 47 Tests so far and scored 3696 runs which include 9 hundred an 26 half-centuries. Babar Azam will be seen in action in the upcoming PSL 2023 where he will captain the Peshawar Zalmi.
As per PSL 2023 schedule, Peshawar Zalmi will play their first match of the season against Karachi Kings on February 14 at National Stadium, Karachi.
