Ever since his emergence as Pakistan's best batter across formats, Babar Azam has been widely compared with his more experienced Indian counterpart Virat Kohli.

Sharing his two cents on this debate, former Pakistan all-rounder Abdul Razzaq opined that Kohli’s fitness is “world class” and Babar will have to work a lot on that aspect to reach the level of the Indian batter.

“The main thing is that his fitness is world-class. Babar Azam’s fitness is not like that of Virat Kohli. Babar needs to work more on his fitness,” Razzaq told the Times of India.

“Babar is Pakistan’s number one player. Babar is in fact the world number 1 batter (ODIs). Be it in any format of the game, Test, ODI, or T20I, he has been consistently performing well. Every country has one player like them (Virat and Babar),” he added.

Hailing Kohli’s intent, Razzaq said: “Virat is an outstanding and fantastic player. The best part is that he takes his team along. His intent is always positive. He utilises his skills very well.”

The former Pakistan cricketer also urged fans to stay away from comparing Kohli and Babar as both are “world class” players.

“We don’t need to compare them. It’s like asking, who is better – Kapil Dev or Imran Khan? These comparisons are not good.

“Kohli is a good player in India. Similarly, Babar Azam is a good player in Pakistan.

“Kohli is a world-class player, Babar is too. But Kohli’s fitness is way better than Babar’s,” he added.

Virat Kohli has represented India in 108 Tests, 274 ODIs and 115 T20Is so far, amassing more than 25000 runs across formats with 75 centuries.

On the other hand, Babar Azam has played 47 Tests, 95 ODIs and 99 T20Is for Pakistan, aggregating 11000+ runs with 28 hundreds.