India vs Pakistan, Asia Cup 2023: File image of Babar Azam© AFP
The India vs Pakistan clash at the Asia Cup 2023 on Saturday will be a closely fought contest. Both Indian cricket team and the Pakistan cricket team are filled with big players, who can change the curse of the match single-handedly. However, some players will be under extra focus like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Babar Azam and Shaheen Afridi. In Babar Azam, the Pakistan cricket team has a great batter, who hold the world No. 1 position in ICC rankings for batters. However, his record in ODIs against India is not great.
More over, Babar Azam’s performance will be compared with Virat Kohli throughout the match.
Babar Azam has scored the most 100s (19) by any batter in their first 102 innings in ODIs. Babar Azam has already surpassed Virat Kohli in terms of their batting numbers in the first 102 ODI innings. Virat Kohli had 4243 runs in his first 102 innings whereas Babar Azam has 5353 runs.
Here’s a look at how both these players have performed in Asia Cup (ODIs): 1) Virat Kohli’s best score in ODIs (183) also came in the Asia Cup against Pakistan back in 2012. 2) Babar Azam registered his 2nd highest individual score (151) in ODIs in his last game.
Virat Kohli has scored 536 runs against Pakistan averaging 48.7 (only team against whom he averages below 50 in ODIs), whereas
Babar Azam in the five ODI innings he has played against India averages just 31.6.
Virat Kohli also has a good ODI record in Sri Lanka (899 runs @ 47.3), whereas Babar has just played five innings in Sri Lanka which includes 2 50+ scores in his last two innings against Afghanistan in the last week.
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