Moody also called Babar special talent.
Pakistan’s star batsman and T20I captain Babar Azam, who is highly considered as Pakistan's next big thing, has been often compared by many cricket experts with India’s modern-day legend Virat Kohli ever since he established himself across the formats.
While Azam continues to score a heap of runs in all three formats of the game and became a batting mainstay for Pakistan over the years; Kohli, India captain, who is already Men in Blue’s got-to-man as the team relies heavily on him across the format, has already earned the status of being one of the greatest batsmen of the world cricket.
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The dashing right-hander also continues to push the case to become the greatest of all time in the gentlemen's game by topping the batting chart, while Azam has produced a series of notable performances across all formats, prompting many to compare the two.
Well, former Australia cricketer Tom Moody has also joined the long list, more interestingly, he went a step ahead from others, saying Azam is a special talent and will definitely be one of the top five batsmen of the decade in the next five to ten years.
Speaking on The Pitch Side Experts Podcast along with the former West Indies cricketer Ian Bishop and cricket analyst Freddie Wilde, Moody said if Kohli is good to watch with the willow on the field, then the rising Pakistani star is something unbelievable to watch out.
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Moody said on the podcast: “He [Babar] has emerged over the last year or so into something that is going to be so special. We talked about how Virat Kohli is so good on the eye as a batsman. If you think Virat Kohli is good to watch, have a look at Babar Azam bat. My gosh, he is something special. I think in the next five to ten years, he will definitely be in your top five [batsmen of the decade] without a question,”
However, the Aussie admitted that Azam’s present statistics make it difficult to put him in the top five batsmen of the modern era, adding: “I think, in the next 5-10 years, he will be on your top five positions. Even though he [Babar] has played 26 matches but in half of those matches, he was not considered even part of the main batting line-up for Pakistan. He was the after-thought down the order,”
Moody signed off by saying, “I think at the moment, it is very hard to justify him at that position given his statistics. Away from home, he is only averaging 37 and at home, he is averaging 67. But we have to consider that he has hardly played away from home and a lot of those games away were during the early part of his career,”
(With CricketPakistan Inputs)