'Babar Azam can surpass Virat Kohli': Pakistan legend makes bold prediction ahead of ODI WC 2023

Renowned Indian cricketer Virat Kohli silenced his critics with a stunning performance during the Asia Cup 2022, where he scored a century against Afghanistan. He carried his impressive form into the 2022 T20 World Cup, emerging as the highest run-scorer. In March of this year, he showcased his vintage batting style and achieved his much-awaited 29th Test ton against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Kohli's exceptional batting skills have often been compared to those of Pakistan's skipper Babar Azam, who is also making a name for himself as one of the most lethal batters in the world.

As teams gear up for the upcoming ODI World Cup, set to take place in India in October, fans are eagerly anticipating the highly anticipated face-off between Kohli and Azam. Former Pakistan skipper Imran Khan has made a bold prediction, stating that Azam has the potential to surpass Kohli's records.

"I haven't recently seen cricket, but I believe that Virat Kohli and Babar Azam belong to the same class. Babar Azam can surpass Virat Kohli; he is that good, from what I have seen," Imran told a local journalist, as quoted by Cricket Pakistan.

It is worth noting that Virat Kohli and Babar Azam share a strong bond off the cricket field, as they have been seen supporting each other during their respective tough times. In fact, when Virat was going through a lean patch, Babar posted a picture with the Indian batter and captioned it, "This too shall pass."

Virat's exceptional performance in the T20 World Cup last year against Pakistan, where he played an unbeaten knock of 82 runs off 53 balls, helped India secure a victory by four wickets. However, despite his heroics, India was eliminated in the semi-finals, while Pakistan finished as the runners-up.

In addition to his international cricket achievements, the 34-year-old batter had a remarkable outing in the IPL 2023, smashing 639 runs in 14 matches, including two centuries and six half-centuries.

On the other hand, Babar has an impressive record, having scored 3696 runs in 47 Test matches and 5089 runs in 100 ODIs. He has nine tons in the longest format and 18 and three centuries in the ODI and T20I format, respectively.

Recently, Babar topped the list ahead of Virat Kohli and Steve Smith with the highest batting average at the number four batting spot in the Test format after playing a minimum number of 15 innings. He has a phenomenal average of 69.10 after playing 20 innings, during which he has struck eight half-centuries and four tons.

(With inputs from ANI)

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