What Happened To Pakistan Players Who Got Compared With Virat Kohli, Ft. Babar Azam

What happened to players who got compared with Kohli [Source: X]

Pakistan cricket has a rich history of living in delusion, and it all started when they compared not one, not two, but three of their players to India’s Virat Kohli. Pakistan has always been known for producing top-quality bowlers, but post 2000, the quality in batting dipped as only a handful of world-class players remained in the squad.

Hence, every new player that was roped into the squad was seen as the future of their batting department. During the period 2009-2011, Virat Kohli was slowly carving a name for himself as one of the best white-ball batters. He had played some key knocks, and was touted as India’s future.

Here is the story of all the Pakistan players who got compared to Virat Kohli.

1) Umar Akmal

At the same time, there was the talented Umar Akmal, the younger brother of Kamran Akmal. He was Pakistan’s best batter in the 2010 T20 World Cup, and the media there dubbed him as Pakistan’s answer to Kohli.

Akmal was technically sound, had all the shots in the books, but he lacked one thing: temperament.

For the first four years, he racked up runs and was Pakistan’s brightest talent before disaster struck. Akmal’s consistency was questioned, and the batter was also in and out of the white-ball team as the player never got the backing from the management. Once compared to Kohli, his career went downhill quickly. 

He last played for Pakistan in 2019, and it would be fair to say that he never truly fulfilled his true potential.

2) Ahmed Shehzad

The closest to Kohli in terms of looks and talent, Ahmed Shehzad, was next in line to be compared with Kohli, and unlike Akmal, the two players (Kohli and Shehzad) had certain similarities.

Shehzad was the first Pakistani player to score centuries across formats (Tests, ODIs, and T20Is), and he gave his nation a glimmer of hope as the batter was destined for greatness.

Technically, he had similar traits to Kohli as both batters had the ability to play the off-side deliveries towards the leg side, and he also had the temperament to play crucial knocks, like the India legend. Though flashy in appearance, Shehzad never truly went on to pile on runs like Kohli.

There were behavioral issues with him, and he was also left out of the Pakistan squad on disciplinary grounds. In 2018 he failed a drug test, and despite showing flashes of brilliance early in his career, Shehzad’s career never truly skyrocketed as he failed to deliver for Pakistan and last played for them in 2019.

3) Babar Azam

The latest and final entrant to be compared with Virat Kohli was Pakistan’s new-gen superstar, Babar Azam. By the time he debuted for Pakistan, almost all their superstars had vanished, and hence, when he started to perform, the nation made the same mistake of comparing him to Kohli.

Kohli is known for having the best cover-drive in the history of the game, and when Babar started playing the same shot with the same elegance, Pakistan believed they had finally hit the jackpot. For a brief period, the comparison was valid as Babar scored truckloads of runs across formats.

However, the reality came out a bit later as he only scored runs in bilateral matches and was lost in important ICC events. This is when Pakistan fans realised that, unlike Kohli, Babar has never delivered the goods in the T20 or 50-overs World Cup.

Once an undisputed starter for Pakistan, Babar is now a liability across formats, and could soon be dropped from the T20I team as well.