While Babar Azam has scored consistently in all formats of international cricket in recent years, there is no denying that he is still not considered the best in the world by most.
The right-handed batsman has been the mainstay of Pakistan’s batting across all formats. While things have not gone well for him in the last few months, he has been scoring heavily in all three formats over the last few years.
Having made his international cricket debut in 2015, Babar has played 52 Tests, 117 ODIs and 123 T20Is for Pakistan so far.
In Tests, the Pakistani star has scored 3898 runs with the help of 9 hundreds and 26 half-centuries. In ODIs, he has scored 5729 runs at an average of 56.72, including 19 hundreds and 32 half-centuries.
His record in T20I is equally impressive as he has scored 4145 runs with the help of 3 centuries and 36 half-centuries in the shortest format of the game.
Babar Azam is the most skillful batsman
Even though Babar Azam is one of the best batsmen in the world, not many would consider him the best. Critics still believe that the Pakistan stalwart needs to do more to be considered better than some of the best batsmen of this generation such as Virat Kohli, Steve Smith, Kane Williamson, Joe Root and Rohit Sharma.
However, former Pakistani player Mohammad Zahid has praised Babar as the most skilful batsman in the world. Zahid said that the Pakistani captain is ahead of all the batsmen in the world when it comes to technique.
At the same time, he also mentioned that players like Smith and Root are ahead of Babar in terms of performance and batting awareness. He then went on to rank the batsmen, giving Smith the top spot, followed by Root and Babar.
“If you ask me about my skill, I would say Babar Azam has the best technique among all batsmen. However, when we talk about performance and batting awareness, Joe Root and Steve Smith are on another level,” Zahid said on Basit Ali’s YouTube channel.
“They don’t have the skill of Babar, but they are smarter in assessing the game. I would put Steve Smith at number one, Joe Root at number two and then Babar Azam,” he added.
Babar was last seen in action during the T20 World Cup in June. He failed to make much of an impact as a batsman or captain as Pakistan were knocked out of the competition in the group stage. Babar scored 122 runs in 4 matches at a dismal strike rate of just 101.66.
