Not Virat Kohli but Babar Azam is like Sachin Tendulkar, says Mohammad Asif
Mohammad Asif feels Babar Azam and not Virat Kohli is like Sachin Tendulkar
|Former Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Asif has claimed that Virat Kohli is not even close to Sachin Tendulkar and it is Babar Azam who is more like Sachin Tendulkar. Asif reasoned that Babar Azam is a top-handed player like Tendulkar while Kohli is a bottom-handed player unlike the batting maestro.
The Kohli vs Tendulkar debate has been going on since forever among the cricket pundits. Mohammad Asif has decided to jump into the long standing debate of which of the two batting greats is better. Asif has reckoned that the Indian captain has survived in the game only because of his fitness level. He also added that Babar’s bat movement is fluent like Sachin.
"Kohli is a bottom-hand player. He is doing well because of his fitness and it is supporting him. The moment he will face a decline, I don't think Kohli can make a comeback. In fact, Babar is an upper-hand player like Sachin. His bat movement is fluent like Sachin. People say Kohli is better than Tendulkar. I say no. Virat does not even come close to Sachin. This is my opinion," Asif said on YouTube channel, CoverDriveCricket.
Asif had his battles against Tendulkar, the most memorable being during India's tour of Pakistan in 2006. While Tendulkar struggled against Asif in the Test series, he played one of his memorable innings of 95 runs in the third ODI in Lahore after battling the tough questions asked by Asif in his 10-over spell. Asif said that Babar's bat flow is similar to the batting great.
"The way Sachin played was all upper hand and a very few people know about this technique. Be it coaches or anyone player. Sachin was so fluent with his cover drives, on drives pulls and cuts. No doubt Kohli has strokes as well, but his is all bottom hand," said the former Pakistan pacers.
Virat Kohli has 70 international centuries across formats which is 30 less than Tendulkar's 100 intenational centuries. In ODIs, the 32-year-old has come close to Tendulkar's 49 hundreds having hit 43 hundreds and is only six centuries behind his former India teammate. However in Tests, Kohli has scored 27 tons and has some catching up to do if he is to get closer to Tendulkar's record of 51 hundreds.
