Babar Azam, Stats Padder or Real Deal ?

[Sean Bradley]

Scored 17 centuries so far. Out of those 17, 5 came against West Indies, 2 against Zimbabwe, and 2 against Srilanka. Played some decent knocks against Australia C side in ODIs, but also got Backs handed over by England C Side in 2021. 

 

Padosis are already claiming that he's the best batsman ever. Even Greater than Sachin, Kohli, Viv Richards combined together.

 

I think he's good, probably the greatest by Padosi Standards, but no where near Kohli yet, forget Sachin or Viv. 

 

Btw averages 31 against India and have almost gone missing in every match apart from the World T20 match recently where our bowlers were tackling the wet conditions. 

 

Thoughts and analysis by ICF experts ?

 

Edited June 12, 2022 by Sean Bradley

[Ankit_sharma03]

He can be their best batsman but for that let see till his career end, noway worlds best unless he keeps scoring at an avg of 60-70 till the end of his career from here which wont happen.

About impact n all- he plays to best of his ability , he cant go at ABDV level coz he doesnt have that ability 

 

Also wkts in Pakistan will now boost his avg coz they are so flat but so are england ones. If you see his peak well TBH he is not even close to what Rohit n Kohli were at their peak . Kohli at his peak has played some mad knocks 

[raki05]

Lol Pakistani are considering him greatest batsmen of this millennium. They completely forget against Pakistan even zim play their b team. Less said about aus,sa and other main stream team. Even eng play their c team while they visited there. I still consider Saeed Anwar and Injamam their best batsmen. This guy is proper stats padder. Thing is right now all good batsmen are out of form or not playing consistent cricket only Pakistani play their a team even against zim c team. Unless he rack up century like this against A attack of SENAI he can't be in discussion of great batsmen.

 

 

 

[Jay]

9 minutes ago, Sean Bradley said:

Scored 17 centuries so far. Out of those 17, 5 came against West Indies, 2 against Zimbabwe, and 2 against Srilanka. Played some decent knocks against Australia C side in ODIs, but also got Backs handed over by England C Side in 2021. 

 

Padosis are already claiming that he's the best batsman ever. Even Greater than Sachin, Kohli, Viv Richards combined together.

 

I think he's good, probably the greatest by Padosi Standards, but no where near Kohli yet, forget Sachin or Viv. 

 

Btw averages 31 against India and have almost gone missing in every match against India apart from the World T20 match recently where our bowlers were tackling the wet conditions. 

 

Thoughts and analysis by ICF experts ?

 

1000% stat padding fodder. Mark my words. Test fraud. 

 

T20 fraud. Only suits odi. Even then stat *er. 

[Gollum]

Anybody who compares this thulla (or any other modern batsman for that matter) with the legendary King Viv is a grade A moron. If poyzzz are claiming he is greater than King, no need to indulge any further, why even argue the rest of the points after this wild claim?

 

Not sure if Azam is even better than Saeed Anwar. ODI batting is so easy these days that any random guy has ridiculous numbers, Rayudu has 47/80 stats, Ponting had 42/80. I rest my case. 

[Gollum]

Will this peak Babar find a place in 2019 WC Eng side? Or Aus 2015? Or Ind 2011? Or Aus 2007/03? Noooooooo

 

Very little impact, decent steady/consistent accumulator. But can't be part of any champion side. He isn't even the biggest threat in the Pak batting lineup tbh.

 

And comparisons with GOAT Viv are just 

King would be averaging 80 with 150+ SR in modern ODI cricket, a century every 2 innings and multiple 300s. And he wouldn't be riding on the coat-tails of his lesser teammates in big matches. Remember Babar had the worst innings by a Pak batter both in 2017 CT F and 2021 SF. Saved by Fakhar in both instances. 

Edited June 12, 2022 by Gollum

[Sean Bradley]

I think Babar's peak has come in a time where other countries have stopped taking Bilateral ODIs seriously, no team sends their best squads for meaningless ODIs, Teams always look to try their bench strength and test the depth of their squads, on the contrary Pakistan are known to field their best playing XIs even against the likes of Zimbabwe.

[raki05]

6 minutes ago, Sean Bradley said:

I think Babar's peak has come in a time where other countries have stopped taking Bilateral ODIs seriously, no team sends their best squads for meaningless ODIs, Teams always look to try their bench strength and test the depth of their squads, on the contrary Pakistan are known to field their best playing XIs even against the likes of Zimbabwe.

Exactly this.

[Austin 3:!6]

Stats paddler or not, he is the best batsman at present all formats combined.

 

Kohli - finished

Root - dont play white ball

Smith - on an overall decline

Kane - on a decline

 

Other younger players like KL Rahul, Labuschange, Karunaratne, Shubman Gill, Olie Pope, Aidan Markram etc is not consistent enough to be rated alongside Babar.

[the don]

Babar Azam is the real deal. Brilliant to watch and has found his way in test cricket as well, ODI’s are his strongest suit. Was brilliant in the 2019 worldcup.

 The talk about C teams in this day and age is just plain stupidity, everyone rests players in bilaterals these days, India got blanked by Southafrica D.

Babar is a class player, but this is.a diff era so i wont compare. Saeed anwar for example would have been an absolute monster with the modern bats and pitches.

[Adamant]

13 minutes ago, Gollum said:

Will this peak Babar find a place in 2019 

And comparisons with GOAT Viv are just 

King would be averaging 80 with 150+ SR in modern ODI cricket, a century every 2 innings and multiple 300s. 

There's a limit to hyping someone, you have crossed that by a *ing country mile. 

[Adamant]

The best batsman in the world all formats combined. 

Shouldn't even be a question. 

 

The likes of Rahul, Markram all competed with him for a while but Babar has destroyed them with his consistency. 

 

 

[raki05]

6 minutes ago, the don said:

Babar Azam is the real deal. Brilliant to watch and has found his way in test cricket as well, ODI’s are his strongest suit. Was brilliant in the 2019 worldcup.

 The talk about C teams in this day and age is just plain stupidity, everyone rests players in bilaterals these days, India got blanked by Southafrica D.

Babar is a class player, but this is.a diff era so i wont compare. Saeed anwar for example would have been an absolute monster with the modern bats and pitches.

Lol look at the team played against Pakistan when they travelled abroad or even whn they travel Pakistan. Against India only last time sa played their b team even india rested some of the main players. Lol eng blanked you guys with their c team. Out of 17 century zimbabar had 9-10 against zim, wi c and bd b team.Post 2019 wc none of the team send their best team in bilateral that is the time zimbabar started flourishing his stats and racking up century. No one other than Pakistani take him seriously and telling greatest batsmen of millenium is why Pakistan as a country is laughing stocks in the world. Shut your moth and enjoy his stats padding till the time it last. Rayadu has better avg and sr than ponting do you consider him better batsmen than ponting. Look at past 2 years batting odi charts most batsmen in top 10 are from associate and low grade test playing nations and zimbabar is at the top, this is how other teams are treating these biletrals.

[Gollum]

19 minutes ago, the don said:

Babar Azam is the real deal. Brilliant to watch and has found his way in test cricket as well, ODI’s are his strongest suit. Was brilliant in the 2019 worldcup.

Too early when it comes to test cricket, needs 2-3 daddy seasons to come in the reckoning, must also score multiple 100s in foreign conditions like Smith, Root, Kohli. Atm I think he has only 1 SENA 100, Kohli has 11 IIRC. 

 

Ultimately test cricket decides the ATG status of any player, that's why modern day cricketers like Steyn/Kallis/Cook/YK are considered ATGs while WC heroes and white ball greats like Bevan, Klusener, Yuvi, Symonds, Bracken, Brett Lee are forgotten figures in the grand scheme of things. 

19 minutes ago, the don said:

 The talk about C teams in this day and age is just plain stupidity, everyone rests players in bilaterals these days, India got blanked by Southafrica D.

All modern white ball stats must be taken with a pinch bucket of salt, doesn't matter whether Pakistani or Indian cricketers. There is a reason why most sane Indian fans don't rate Kohli the ODI batsman higher than Sachin.....despite his impressive numbers. 

 

Do you think Sachin, Lara, Anwar had the luxury of facing Aus/RSA attacks without McWarne, Donald, Pollock back in the day? No, teams never experimented this much in the pre-T20 age because of a multitude of reasons. I can't recognize half the players from Aus, RSA, Eng in modern white ball bilaterals. 

19 minutes ago, the don said:

Babar is a class player, but this is.a diff era so i wont compare. Saeed anwar for example would have been an absolute monster with the modern bats and pitches.

Zaheer Abbas will always be the GOAT ODI batsman for Pak, for the things he achieved in the 70s and early 80s. Only ODI batsman from that era whose comparison with King Viv wouldn't evoke laughter. 

Then you have Miandad, Anwar, Inzi, heck even Yousuf would have beastly numbers in this day and age. 

Edited June 12, 2022 by Gollum

[Gollum]

 

17 minutes ago, Adamant said:

There's a limit to hyping someone, you have crossed that by a *ing country mile. 

Maybe, but point still stands, Viv is beyond comparison in ODI cricket. A colossal figure standing alone, way way above the other mortals. 

Edited June 12, 2022 by Gollum

[Norman]

It's the easiest era to be a "world's all format best batsman". Best red ball batters don't play White ball cricket and most of the top LOI batters aren't playing Tests. The competition is pretty much non-existent. 

 

Credit to his fitness and concentration but I'd rather have Root, Smith, Pant (in tests) , Butler, QDK, Warner (LOI) etc in my team. 

[Adamant]

5 minutes ago, Gollum said:

 

Maybe, but point still stands, Viv is beyond comparison in ODI cricket. A colossal figure standing alone, way way above the other mortals. 

Definitely, agree with that.

 

The likes of Babar don't even come near him. 

 

Viv

Kohli

Sachin

Abd

Ponting 

Dhoni

 

Babar is nowhere near them

[Gollum]

Anyway I do enjoy Babar's batting, classy strokemaker and has played a couple of really clutch knocks to boot, that WC 100 against NZ was special. And indeed the overall best in the world, personally don't give overall numbers much weightage since I place too much importance to test cricket, for me that determines a player's standing. But it is what it is, congrats to Babar, well deserved reputation. 

 

Think he is the first Pak batter who can lay claim to being the overall best batsman in the world. Zaheer no way because he was afraid of high pace bowling (Imran's own words); Miandad had Viv/Greg Chappell to contend with; Anwar's peak occured in the Sachin/Lara/Waugh era; Inzi's peak coincided with Ponting's and a couple of others; YK was never good in white ball stuff. 

[Vijy]

10 minutes ago, Adamant said:

Definitely, agree with that.

 

The likes of Babar don't even come near him. 

 

Viv

Kohli

Sachin

Abd

Ponting 

Dhoni

 

Babar is nowhere near them

You must not have seen much ODI cricket at all if you think Punter is in top 5. Have you even seen Dean Jones play? He was not just better than the overrated Punting (who is a bunting, i.e. all show) but also Hussey and arguably even Bevan. Also big LOL regarding Kohli at 2 and Tendu at 3; neither should be that high, although they both deserve to be in top 10.

 

As for Babar, yes, he is a stats padder but also the most consistent batter currently around. However, until he scores big in SENA and scores winning knocks, he will not climb into the echelons of the ATGs. currently, he can be termed "great" (with some caveats) but not ATG.

[Vijy]

6 minutes ago, Gollum said:

Anyway I do enjoy Babar's batting, classy strokemaker and has played a couple of really clutch knocks to boot, that WC 100 against NZ was special. And indeed the overall best in the world, personally don't give overall numbers much weightage since I place too much importance to test cricket, for me that determines a player's standing. But it is what it is, congrats to Babar, well deserved reputation. 

 

Think he is the first Pak batter who can lay claim to being the overall best batsman in the world. Zaheer no way because he was afraid of high pace bowling (Imran's own words); Miandad had Viv/Greg Chappell to contend with; Anwar's peak occured in the Sachin/Lara/Waugh era; Inzi's peak coincided with Ponting's and a couple of others; YK was never good in white ball stuff. 

ditto for Mohd. Yousuf. He was God-like for 2-3 years (especially that one year) but had a lot of more talented batters competing with him - Kallis & Sanga to name 2.