Time for Babar Azam to swallow his ego and learn from Virat Kohli before it gets too late

What Babar should learn from Kohli [Source: AFP Photo]

Pakistan selectors gave Babar Azam one more chance to prove his worth in the 50-overs format, but the out-of-form star player couldn’t deliver the goods as he could only score 45 runs in three matches and struggled against the Proteas bowling attack on home conditions in the three-game series.

His last match-winning knock in ODIs came against Nepal in August 2023, and since then, his average in ODIs has fallen down and Babar has looked a pale shadow of his former self, and the numbers do tell the entire story.

Babar Azam's poor ODI form in 2025

(Babar Azam in ODIs in 2025)

• Just 379 runs in 14 matches, with an average of 27, define Babar Azam’s ODI journey in 2025. He has struggled for runs and has failed to work on his weakness, and as a result, his career has been derailed.
• He has issues with the incoming deliveries from the pacers, and the star Pakistan batter also struggles against spinners, but he has yet to rectify the mistakes, as his ODI average has gone down from 57 to 53.24.

Perhaps time has come for Babar to follow Virat Kohli's footsteps and learn from the best to up his game across formats.

What Kohli did after his slump in England

Virat Kohli was at the peak of his powers in 2014 and had a successful New Zealand tour where he performed exceedingly well across formats and scored hundreds for fun. However, in the England away tour, pacer Jimmy Anderson gave him a reality check.

The pacer exploited his outside the off-stump weakness on the tour as Kohli failed to deliver the goods and could only score 134 runs in 10 innings, with an average of 13.50. The pacer exploited his outside the off-stump weakness on the tour as Kohli failed to deliver the goods and could only score 134 runs in 10 innings, with an average of 13.50. From being in seventh heaven, Kohli was brought down by some excellent bowling by the English great.

What did Kohli do after the tour? His ego could have told him to stay silent and work alone on his technique. Instead, the great batter reached out to his idol, Sachin Tendulkar, and the maestro worked on improving his technique.

Sachin worked on Kohli’s off-stump weakness and the results were there to be seen. On the next SENA tour, Kohli smacked 692 runs in Australia, with four centuries and suddenly regained all his lost confidence.

Babar, please follow Kohli's footsteps

Perhaps Babar’s ego has blocked everything as the batter is yet to work on his weakness. Just like Kohli, Babar has found the same ways of getting dismissed again and again, but there is hardly any improvement.

Over the years, Pakistan cricket has produced some of the best batters in the business - Inzamam-ul-Haq, Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Misbah-ul-Haq, just to name a few, and Babar could try his luck by discussing his batting problems with the legends of the game.

Inzamam, Younis, and Yousuf have achieved everything in cricket and have scored runs almost everywhere; hence, they know what it takes to score in tricky conditions. Time is running out for Babar as selectors don’t have patience and they won’t show any mercy, removing him from ODIs, just like his omission from the T20I squad. Hence, he should reach out to former Pakistan cricketers for advice before it gets too late.

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