Former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif has praised current skipper Babar Azam, comparing the right-hander to the legends Don Bradman and Brian Lara. Speaking in a YouTube video shared by a dedicated cricket page named Cricket Den, Latif ranked Babar among Pakistani greats like Inzamam-ul-Haq, Javed Miandad, Wasim Akram and called him “Bradman and Lara of the current era”. Recalling his 2019 tweet where he wrote player names like Javed Miandad, Wasim Akram, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Waqar Younis, Younis Khan, Saqlain Mushtaq and Mohammed Yousuf, Latif said Babar was ahead of them all.
He, however, pointed out that it would be unfair to compare the right-hander to players of the past era as the playing environment has changed drastically over the years. “We can’t compare because here I’m not just talking about Babar. All these guys, Virat, Rohit, Williamson, all these cricketers who play ODIs, they hit with 10 defenders,” he said in the video.
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Citing the example of former Pakistani fly-half Saeed Anwar, the 53-year-old said he hardly trains before a game so comparing him to modern players wouldn’t be fair. Latif, however, called Anwar the number one hitter produced by Pakistan
The former skipper said that previously there were only four outfield players inside the circle, compared to five now. So if Inzamam or Anwar had the chance to play today, they would “eat bowlers” if one defender was less outside the circle.
“They were greats of that era. He (Babar) is the Bradman and Lara of that era. That’s the thing,” Latif added.
Playing for Pakistan in 40 Tests since his debut in 2016, Babar has scored a total of 2851 runs at an average of 45.98 and the highest score of 196.
In the ODIs, the Pakistani skipper scored 4261 runs in 84 innings in 86 games.
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