{"id":340369,"date":"2025-08-13T05:36:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T05:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/340369\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T05:36:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T05:36:14","slug":"babar-azam-should-never-have-been-compared-to-virat-kohli-former-pakistan-cricketer-cricket-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/340369\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Babar Azam should never have been compared to Virat Kohli’ \u2013 Former Pakistan cricketer | Cricket News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"'BabarVirat Kohli and Babar Azam Former Pakistan<\/a> batter Ahmed Shehzad<\/a> has come out strongly against the trend of comparing players, particularly Babar Azam<\/a>, with modern-day great Virat Kohli<\/a>. Speaking in an interview, Shehzad said that such comparisons are not only unfair but also add unnecessary pressure on players, which is visible in Babar\u2019s current struggles. \u201cWhen everything was going well, you were running campaigns comparing players. Now that the performances are not coming, you are saying \u2018don\u2019t compare two players\u2019. Why not? Virat Kohli<\/a>\u2019s comparison cannot be made with anyone in the world. He is a legend of this generation, a role model. You cannot compare him even with MS Dhoni<\/a>. Dhoni may have been a great captain, but as a batter, cricketer, and athlete, Kohli stands alone. No one should be compared with anyone because it\u2019s unfair and it adds extra pressure, which we are now seeing on Babar Azam,\u201d Shehzad said.<\/p>\n

Explained: Why The India-Pakistan Asia Cup Clash Cannot Be Cancelled Despite Backlash<\/p>\n

Babar\u2019s dip in form has been a talking point for months. He has now gone 72 consecutive international innings without scoring a century, with his last hundred coming against Nepal. Since 2023, no other cricketer has endured a longer drought without a century. Adding to that, since 2024, Babar and Mohammad Rizwan are the only two batters from full-member nations with a strike rate below 80. The struggles have coincided with a change in leadership. Babar is no longer Pakistan\u2019s captain across formats, having stepped down earlier this year following criticism over results and his own performances. The recent ODI series against West Indies only intensified the scrutiny, as Pakistan suffered a 202-run loss to concede their first bilateral ODI series to the Caribbean side in 34 years.<\/p>\n

Poll<\/p>\n

Should players be compared to legends like Virat Kohli?<\/p>\n

Shehzad\u2019s remarks highlight the pressure top players face when placed on the same pedestal as legends, and why the weight of public comparisons can often prove damaging to form and confidence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Virat Kohli and Babar Azam Former Pakistan batter Ahmed Shehzad has come out strongly against the trend of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4101],"tags":[121307,53455,5911,1406,45347,6164,8054,6026,53456,79,16,15,4221],"class_list":{"0":"post-340369","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-ahmed-shehzad","9":"tag-babar","10":"tag-babar-azam","11":"tag-cricket","12":"tag-kohli","13":"tag-mohammad-rizwan","14":"tag-ms-dhoni","15":"tag-pakistan","16":"tag-rizwan","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom","20":"tag-virat-kohli"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115019840728514515","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}