In recent times, Pakistan’s limited-overs captain Babar Azam has impressed fans and experts with his impeccable batting skills. Babar is currently in the top five of the ICC rankings across all three formats and is the only player to maintain the rankings at the moment in world cricket. Despite no cricketing action around the world due to Coronavirus pandemic, the likes of Virat Kohli, Steve Smith, and Babar Azam continue to make news in every cricketing debate.

Pakistan head coach, Misbah-ul-Haq is the latest to weigh in on the debate. During an interview on the Youtube channel, Cricket Baz, he said, “I don’t like comparisons but Babar is currently very close to being in the same class as Virat Kohli, Steve Smith or Joe Root. He believes in the work ethic that if you want to better Kohli you have to work harder than him at your skills, fitness, and game awareness.”

The 25-year-old Babar, who was named captain of the Pakistan T20 team ahead of the Australia series in October last year, was recently handed the reins of the ODI team as well.

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Talking about the same, “Making him the T20 captain was a tester. We wanted to see how he will respond to this challenge. If you are a performer like Babar then it becomes easier for you to motivate the rest of the team and get things done. “Even when I was made captain in 2010 my performances were here and there and I was in and out.”

Babar was the leading run-scorer of the T20I series against Australia last year as he had amassed 210 runs, which included a hundred, at 52.50 in the Test series against the same opponents. In the two-Test home series against Sri Lanka, Babar ended the series with 262 runs with an average of exactly 262. Misbah reckons Babar had changed as a batsman when he got runs in the Tests in Australia.

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Talking about his experience as a head coach, Misbah said: “Having captained, it has helped me a lot. As captain I had to manage everything and also having played under top coaches … I have seen closely their work ethics and how they managed things. “It is a learning process. Having remained captain it is a big advantage for coaching because you know the players and their mood swings.”