Babar Azam close to being in league of Kohli, Smith, believes Misbah-ul-Haq

Pakistan’s Babar Azam, who made his international debut in 2015, has already become their top batsmen across formats in limited-overs cricket. So far, he has amassed 3,359 averaging 54.2 in ODIs and 1471 at 50.7 in T20Is and is also ranked first in the shortest format. Eventually, the 25-year-old was named captain of the Pakistan T20I side ahead of the Australia series in October last year and was recently appointed as the skipper of the ODI team.

Pakistan team head coach and chief selector Misbah-ul-Haq attested that the youngster is destined to be a world-class batsman and is very close to being in the same league as India skipper Virat Kohli and Australia's Steve Smith. The former Pakistan skipper also revealed that the board appointed Babar as T20I captain last year to test him and examine his response to the new challenge. 

"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. Making him the T20 captain was a tester. We wanted to see how he will respond to this challenge. All of us agree that he has done a very good job and his biggest plus is that being among the world's top players he leads by example," Misbah said in an interview to Youtube channel, Cricket Baaz.

"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. But captaincy changed my game and mindset and I became a more hard working and motivated cricketer."

Misbah hailed Babar’s ability to always challenge himself in order to get better as a captain with experience. Misbah feels Babar, who was the leading run-scorer of the T20I series against Australia last year with 210 runs, which included a hundred, at 52.50 in the Test series, had changed as a batsman when he got runs in the Tests in Australia.

"He is in a zone of his own. He just doesn't want to be in the team. He just doesn't want to play for money. He wants to be the top performer for Pakistan. He is always pitting himself against other top batsmen like Kohli or Smith. He loves challenges in the nets and on the field. He has really matured as a player and in time he will get better as a captain with experience," stated Misbah.

"Before that [the Australia series] he was getting runs in tests but not consistently. In Australia and in the following tests against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh he changed," he added.