Lahore: The debate over the best player between Babar Azam and Virat Kohli has long been a hot topic in cricket circles, with every cricket fan talking about it, especially in the subcontinent.
While Kohli is a superstar who has scored thousands of runs and many international centuries, Babar Azam is solely matching him with match winning performances.
The main difference between Babar Azam and Virat Kohli is their seniority in the game.
By the time Babar played his first international match for Pakistan, Kohli had appeared in more than 150 one-day internationals and had more than 20 centuries to his name. Despite this, Babar now has a better ODI average than Kohli.
After playing more than 250 ODIs, Virat Kohli maintains an average of 58.07 with a strike rate of 92.92.
He is only one of the six players in history who have scored more than 12000 runs in the format, he has scored 12311 runs till date, he is also the fastest player to score 12000 runs in only 251 matches.
On the other hand, Babar Azam has recently surpassed Kohli in terms of average. The second consecutive century against Australia in Lahore has helped Babar Azam surpass Kohli’s ODI average.
In 84 innings, Pakistan’s all-format captain has scored 4261 runs with an average of 59.18 and a strike rate of 90.29, including 16 centuries and 18 half-centuries.
He recently became the fastest batsman in Asia to reach 4,000 ODI runs in just 82 innings and the second fastest batsman in the world.
His Indian counterpart took 93 innings to complete the feat. Virat Kohli has scored 12311 runs in 260 matches with an average of 58.07 and a strike rate of 92.96, including 43 centuries and 64 half-centuries.