I would select Babar Azam over Virat Kohli, says England’s Adil Rashid

Adil Rashid, the England spinner, has made the bold statement of claiming he would pick Pakistan’s limited-overs skipper Babar Azam over Indian captain Virat Kohli were he to select a cricketing XI.

While 31-year-old Kohli is widely rated as the current best batsmen in the world across all formats, 25-year-old Babar has been labelled as the next big thing in batting.

“Ahhh, it’s a tough one. Well, it’s a tough one,” the leg-spinner, who won the World Cup in 2019, said on At the Crease TV. “You got to go on the current form. I think I got to go for Babar Azam on current form. I am talking form here. I say Babar Azam is in better form so I picked Babar Azam. But they both are world-class players anyway.”

Kohli experienced a rare dip in form this year before the coronavirus pandemic brought a halt to all cricket action. He managed just 218 runs in 11 innings across formats in India’s tour of New Zealand.

Babar, on the other hand, had scored a masterful 143 in the only Test he played this year against Bangladesh in Rawalpindi. He was then in a fine run of form at the Pakistan Super League, scoring 345 runs at an average of 49.29 before the suspension of the league.