Virat Kohli & Babar Azam (Source: AFP Photos)
Babar Azam was touted as Pakistan’s next great batter across formats, and he was on his way to greatness before disaster struck. The former Pakistan captain has experienced a career downturn since August 2023 and has yet to recover from it. Despite being their best batter since debut, Babar had to endure severe consequences for two years of failure.
His captaincy was taken away, he lost his place in the T20I setup, and the batter now finds himself in deep Ocean, with nowhere to go. Babar was also criticised by fans and experts for his failures since 2023, and this journey of his has a striking resemblance to Virat Kohli’s journey.
Striking resemblance between Kohli and Babar
Babar was destined to become the next Virat Kohli, and after every good innings, he was often compared with the Indian legend. However, he has yet to reach that level in international cricket. But interestingly, the two have had similar journeys in the last few years, and here are few similarities the duo shares.
1) Rise to the top, and a great downfall
Both Virat and Babar had a similar rise to the top of world cricket. Up until 2016, Kohli was touted as one of the best batters produced by India. However, from 2016 to 2019, he took his game to the next level and became the modern-day ‘King.’ In the four-year period, he amassed a staggering 10603 runs across 186 matches, with 36 centuries to his name.
Similarly, Babar had a meteoric rise to his career, and quickly went to 19 ODI centuries, and became the second-highest run-getter in T20Is, even surpassing Kohli. However, just like the rise to the top, the duo had a similar downfall.
From January 2020 till December 2022, Kohli failed to score a single century in international cricket, and so much so, that there were rumours to drop him from the side. Similarly, Babar last scored an international century in 2023 August, and since then, he is searching for his next ton.
2) Best batters in their captaincy tenure
The duo also had similarities when it came to their captaincy tenure. The two were the best players of their side, and often played the role of a ‘lone warrior.’ Kohli scored more than 10,000 runs under his leadership, and often used to win games on his own, a trait that Babar also had.
From 2020 onwards, Babar became the leader of the Pakistan batting unit and played a huge part in Pakistan’s white-ball success, especially in the T20 World Cups, where he took them to a semi-final, and final berth.
3) Captaincy taken away in the blink of an eye
Neither Virat nor Babar were perfect captains, but they had a vision for the team. While Kohli took India’s Test team to the top of the world, Babar took Pakistan to the number one T20I rankings. However, failure to win any ICC tournament led to their downfall as captains.
Kohli took India to the Champions Trophy and WTC finals, while Babar took Pakistan to the T20 World Cup finale in 2022. But no ICC trophy meant pressure mounted, and while Kohli left his captaincy in anger, as he had issues with the BCCI, Babar’s captaincy was taken away by PCB.
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