BABAR AZAM VS VIRAT KOHLI 2023 – DETAILED STATS & RECORDS COMPARISON ACROSS ALL FORMATS
As we speak about both players, we know that both are definitely the finest of this generation but when we think deeply Babar Azam and Virat Kohli are not even of the same generation, the captain of the Pakistan National team Babar Azam made his international debut in 2015, whereas the former Indian captain Virat Kohli made his way in to the international arena way back in 2008.
There was a time when Virat Kohli was undoubtedly the best ODi batter as he used to rule the ODi batting rankings since 2021 when Pakistani captain performed well on a tour vs SA and dethroned Virat Kohli to be the new king of ODi cricket and till day Babar Azam is sitting at the top of ODi rankings with quite a margin.
But we all know this debate of who is the best between two was started since 2016 when Babar Azam scored 3 consecutive centuries vs WI in UAE, actually there is no comparison if we talk about how many matches Kohli has played till now and Babar Azam who is just at the start of his career with playing only 200 odd matches for his country but his performances in those matches made us believe that he can outclass Virat Kohli, let’s see a detailed comparison note in this regard;
BABAR AZAM VS VIRAT KOHLI TEST STATS:
Babar Azam made his international test debut in the last 2000s whereas Virat Kohli has been playing test cricket for decades, Pakistani captain Babar Azam hasn’t scored as many runs as Indian maestro Virat Kohli but we all know how much potential Babar Azam has in him and there will be a day when Babar Azam will equal all the runs record of Virat Kohli but at the moment Kohli is way ahead of Babar Azam but every batter has his time and in future it will be Babar Azam’s world of cricket.
| BABAR AZAM VS VIRAT KOHLI TESTS STATS | ||||||
| PLAYER | INNINGS | RUNS | AVERAGE | SR | 100s | 50s |
| VIRAT KOHLI | 182 | 8195 | 48.4 | 55.4 | 27 | 28 |
| BABAR AZAM | 85 | 3696 | 48.6 | 55.1 | 9 | 26 |
BABAR AZAM VS VIRAT KOHLI ODI STATS:
Babar Azam vs Virat Kohli comparison has its own taste when it comes to their competition in ODI cricket which is also the best format of Babar Azam as well as we know how Virat Kohli was a beast in this format, in this format we can closely compete for both even though we should keep in mind that Babar Azam made his ODI debut in 2015 when Virat Kohli was already a super star in world cricket, that’s why Indian batter has scored more than 12000 ODi runs in this format but as we speak on potential Babar Azam has pure talent to beat this record if he gets enough games as well as Kohli has played so far.
| BABAR AZAM VS VIRAT KOHLI ODI STATS | ||||||
| PLAYER | INNINGS | RUNS | AVERAGE | SR | 100s | 50s |
| VIRAT KOHLI | 262 | 12809 | 57.69 | 93.7 | 46 | 64 |
| BABAR AZAM | 93 | 4813 | 59.41 | 89.1 | 17 | 24 |
BABAR AZAM VS VIRAT KOHLI T20I STATS:
As I have already mentioned the generation gap in both players but still this is the format where both players have played almost similar games and Babar Azam has also scored almost equal runs as Kohli scored in this T20i format speaks up the volume for both players and I will not be shocked if in future Babar Azam ends up scoring more than Virat Kohli has scored till now after 14+ years in this format, Babar Azam was also ranked as the top-ranked ICC batter for many years and is always in and out of the top 5 rankings for batters which tells us his class in this format, both are consistent enough but both have their shortages in this format with Babar Azam scoring at less SR but his scoring rate of fifties is very much special from others.
| BABAR AZAM VS VIRAT KOHLI T20i STATS | ||||||
| PLAYER | INNINGS | RUNS | AVERAGE | SR | 100s | 50s |
| VIRAT KOHLI | 107 | 4008 | 52.7 | 137.8 | 1 | 37 |
| BABAR AZAM | 94 | 3355 | 41.4 | 127.8 | 2 | 30 |
CAPTAINCY RECORDS
As we know that both captained their National sides as well, Babar Azam was named as the captain of Pakistan in 2019 but Virat Kohli is now not the captain of the Indian team, he was named as a pretty successful captain as well, so in this comparison, we will talk about the captaincy stats as well but alike other aspects there is less experience in captaincy for Babar Azam with Virat Kohli who was among the top test captains ever in the history of the game.
| BABAR AZAM VS VIRAT KOHLI TEST CAPTAINCY RECORD | ||
| VIRAT KOHLI | VS | BABAR AZAM |
| 68 | MATCHES | 18 |
| 40 | WON | 8 |
| 17 | LOST | 6 |
In the second episode of the captaincy comparison, the T20i format is the strongest format for Babar Azam as captain as he was given the captaincy role in 2019 but in just 3 years Pakistan has played a semi-final of WT20 2021 followed by the final of the Asia Cup 2022 as well as WT20 2022, Babar Azam is also the most successful Pakistani captain in T20is and has captained Pakistan in more T20is in comparison to Virat Kohli, and Babar Azam is a clear winner in this form of the game.
| BABAR AZAM VS VIRAT KOHLI T20I CAPTAINCY RECORD | ||
| VIRAT KOHLI | VS | BABAR AZAM |
| 50 | MATCHES | 66 |
| 30 | WON | 40 |
| 16 | LOST | 21 |
The last and the most important format of cricket, the captaincy by both players in ODI cricket is not the same as in T20 cricket as Babar has just started his ODI career as captain but in opposite, Virat has tons of experience as many wins under his belt as captain till the year 2023 but if babar will ever get to captain Pakistan the same, his start suggests it will be a good one in future as well.
| BABAR AZAM VS VIRAT KOHLI ODI CAPTAINCY RECORD | ||
| VIRAT KOHLI | VS | BABAR AZAM |
| 95 | MATCHES | 21 |
| 65 | WON | 13 |
| 27 | LOST | 7 |
ALL FORMAT RUNS
The main thing which stops us from any kind of good experience is the time period and the matches both players have played so far are not the same, Babar Azam since the start of his career in 2015 has played fewer matches than Virat but the main thing is that Babar Azam has scored half of the career runs of Virat Kohli as of now and in near future he will be coming for that records as well but that’s still a long way to go and for that he has to continue performing the way he has been doing so far in his career, the stats of both players in all formats are as follows;
| BABAR AZAM VS VIRAT KOHLI OVERALL RUNS | ||||||
| PLAYER | INNINGS | RUNS | AVERAGE | HS | 100s | 50s |
| VIRAT KOHLI | 551 | 25047 | 53.4 | 254* | 74 | 129 |
| BABAR AZAM | 272 | 11864 | 50 | 196 | 28 | 80 |
ALL FORMAT RUNS AS CAPTAIN
Another very important thing in cricket is considered the performance of the player when he has been given the captaincy of his team, to judge whether he has the temperament to perform the same as well or not, the captaincy stats of both players as we know are not same but the stats available are enough to mark comparison between both players with Virat Kohli has a slight edge on his average but Babar Azam has not been too far with the runs as well as the centuries keeping in view the matches he has played are also half of what Kohli played before leaving captaincy of Indian National cricket team.
| BABAR AZAM VS VIRAT KOHLI (AS CAPTAIN) | ||||||
| PLAYER | INNINGS | RUNS | AVERAGE | HS | 100s | 50s |
| VIRAT KOHLI | 250 | 12883 | 59.9 | 254* | 41 | 58 |
| BABAR AZAM | 114 | 5170 | 49.2 | 196 | 12 | 40 |
