Danish Kaneria, a former cricket player for Pakistan, declined to draw parallels between Virat Kohli and Babar Azam’s auras. While Babar hasn’t accomplished much for himself, particularly in international cricket, the star Indian batter of late finished as the top run scorer of the ODI World Cup 2023, IPL 2024, and was named Player of the Match in the T20 World Cup final.
Although he was reinstated as Pakistan’s white-ball captain earlier in the year, the Men in Green were sadly ousted from the T20 World Cup 2024 group stage. His batting record is also being scrutinised. With scores of 0, 22, and 31 in the current Test series against Bangladesh, Babar finds himself in a challenging situation.
Following Day 2 of the second Test between Pakistan and Bangladesh, Kaneria said that Virat Kohli has an aura that Babar does not, and that he should not be compared to him.
By whom are they being compared? I’m over hearing comparisons between them. When comparing, consider the number of runs that Virat has amassed. He has scored runs in several different countries. “He is an enormous player,” Kaneria remarked.
“Observe his height; when he enters the field, his aura is distinct, and he (Babar) does not even come close; forget about drawing comparisons between them. Everything that the channels produce in order to market their goods. Many people have asked me to compare them, but I’ve never actually done it. Examine the statistics. Do look at the statistics after they both retire,” he continued.
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In the first innings of the second Test at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, Pakistan scored 274 runs. Along with Saim Ayub and Agha Salman, captain Shan Masood, who received a lot of flak for his bad play, also reached a half-century. None of them could translate it into a three-digit score, though. Bangladesh concluded Day 2 with a score of 10/0, and because they are already ahead 1-0 in the two-match series, they would like to take the lead and increase the pressure on Pakistan.