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.

Kohli has represented India in 110 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 48 Tests, 100 ODIs and 104 T20Is for Pakistan, aggregating 12000+ runs with 30 hundreds.

Sharing his two cents on this debate, former Pakistan pacer Rana Naved-ul-Hasan opined that Babar is more “technically sound” than Kohli, citing the lean patch the latter went through for an extended period before regaining his form.

“Whenever we compare Babar Azam or Virat Kohli, I always say Babar is more technically sound than him, and this is why he has rare failures. Kohli struggled recently for a year or year and a half because he is a bottom-handed player, and when these players fail it lasts longer,” said Naved-ul-Hasan on Nadir Ali Podcast.

According to him, Kohli’s range of shots is more than Babar but the Pakistan captain knows how to maximise his talent despite the limitations.

“Babar is technically more sound but Kohli has more shots than him. However, Babar makes good use of his limited shots.”

“The reason Kohli has more shots than Babar is because the pitches in India are superb for batting, he plays in the IPL where he faces world class bowlers,” he said.

In the end, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan also mentioned that it will be easier for him to dismiss Kohli as compared to Babar.

“If I was in my old rhythm, then between the two I can get Kohli out easily. I had good outswing so I would have gotten him caught at slips or the wicketkeeper,” he remarked.

While Virat Kohli is currently touring West Indies with the Indian team for two Tests and three ODIs, Babar Azam is leading the Pakistan team on the Test tour of Sri Lanka.