BABAR AZAM VS SHAHEEN SHAH, WHO’S BETTER – THE REAL BATTLE OF PSL
Pakistan Super League (PSL) as we know is one of the prestigious T20 tournaments around the world, especially because of the battles within the battle among one of the top players in the world and the biggest battle in the Pakistan Super League is between the best batter Pakistan has produced till now Babar Azam and the greatest current Pakistani bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi which is the talk of the town ever year in the PSL.
The rivalry started way back in 2018 when there was the first clash between Babar Azam and Shaheen Shah in the PSL but at that time both were youngsters, now after years of hard work and sheer determination Babar Azam who is the world’s top-ranked batsman and on the other hand, if you talk about Shaheen Shah just go and ask from any opener that how big a threat Shaheen Shah is with the new ball.
ICC PLAYER OF THE YEAR:
On the basis of the performances both players have given for a long time for their National team, Shaheen Shah Afridi was awarded the ICC player of the year award in 2021 and Babar Azam decided not to hold back so next year he won the same award of ICC player of the year in 2022 and two of the best players from Pakistan won this prestigious ICC award for two consecutive years.
This is where it’s the beauty of the Pakistan Super League starts because there is no other league in this world which offers a contest between two of the previous players who had won the ICC player of the year awards, this sight is for the people of Pakistan in front of them, live in their stadiums, but let’s see who has won this battle of the best more often between the two current greats of Pakistan cricket, the stats year wise are as follows;
| YEAR | BALLS | RUNS | OUTS | 4s | 6s | SR | AVG |
| 2018 | 8 | 16 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 200 | – |
| 2019 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 66.7 | – |
| 2020 | 29 | 44 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 151.7 | – |
| 2021 | 6 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 116.7 | 7 |
| 2022 | 10 | 12 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 120 | – |
| 2023 | 9 | 12 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 133 | 12 |
Shaheen Shah Afridi has improved his record over Babar Azam a bit after 2020 but till 2020 it was all Babar Azam, Shaheen Shah got the better out of Babar Azam in 2021 and he was a very improved bowler after that Babar also felt tough to face with every passing year, at one point Babar Azam vs Shaheen Shah had a scoring rate of around 150 and to dismiss Babar was still a dream of Shaheen Shah in PSL. Shaheen Shah made his presence felt and since 2021 he got Babar Azam out twice in PSL but Babar Azam’s overall record over Shaheen Afridi still looks in favor of the Pakistani batting maestro, his overall stats vs Shaheen Shah in T20 cricket are as follows;
| OVERALL RECORD | BALLS | RUNS | OUTS | 4s | 6s | SR | AVG |
| 65 | 93 | 2 | 16 | 0 | 143 | 46.5 |
FINAL VERDICT:
ALTHOUGH WE ALL KNOW THAT BABAR AZAM AND SHAHEEN SHAH AFRIDI ARE BOTH OUR CURRENT SUPERSTARS AND THESE STATS JUST TELL US WHO WAS BETTER ON THAT DAY BECAUSE WE ALL KNOW HOW GOOD BOTH ARE FOR PAKISTAN TEAM AND THEIR PERFORMANCES FOR PAKISTAN SPEAK ON THEIR BEHALF THAT HOW GOOD BOTH PLAYERS ARE FOR PAKISTAN TEAM. SO, LET’S LEAVE THAT DEBATE THAT WHO’S BETTER JUST SIT BACK AND ENJOY THEIR GREATNESS ON THE FIELD AND GAVE MOMENTS FOR US TO CHEERISH.
