Zaheer Abbas has called the debate over Babar Azam’s and Virat Kohli’s skills ‘utterly absurd.’ He tore into Babar while addressing the gathering at the Cricket Predicta Conclave. While the former Pakistan batter gave a lot of credit to the Indian player, he did not share the same sentiments for Babar. Abbey’s only suggestion was whether captain Babar should be retained in the squad or not based on his current output.
‘These comparisons are meaningless. Virat Kohli plays every match and scores runs; the other player (Babar) does not make any score in any match – so what is there to compare? The who scored runs, is the bigger player. Babar Azam should not be in the team,’ he said according to reports.
Elucidating his point, Zaheer Abbas asserted that Babar Azam had to perform since he was the key batsman in the Pakistan line-up. In his assessment, if Babar was such a significant player but could not assist the team’s cause, he did not have any business being part of the squad. “If he’s not scoring runs, because if he’s our main batsman and he’s out of form, he should be out of the team,” he added.
Zaheer Abbas also spoke on the reasons why India is still one of the best cricket teams in the world. He commended their captain Rohit Sharma stating, “The Indian team overall is very good. Their batters are doing well and the bowlers are good as well. It is a very complete side which plays very intelligent cricket. Their captain is also very good and there is proper understanding of the game. When you have all the wheels in motion it is easy entertainment and that is the situation with India Currently.”
Since the last few games, the Pakistan team has faced a lot of backlash. They suffered a home series loss against Bangladesh of 0-2 in a 2-match Test series. Pakistan also lost the first Test match of the series by 10 wickets.
In the first innings Babar was dismissed without scoring, while in the second he managed to contribute 22 runs. In the later Test, Babar managed to score only 31 and 11 as Pakistan lost the Test match by six wickets.
Nevertheless, on the other hand Kohli has recently led India in the victorious Test series against Bangladesh with a clean score of 2-0. In the first Test he failed to contribute much with the bat however he made 47 runs in the first innings of the second Test, and then he made another 29 runs not out to ensure that India won the match by seven wickets.
