Asia Cup 2023: As the seconds morph into minutes, and minutes into hours, the sense of anticipation crescendos for this Saturday’s electrifying face-off between Pakistan and India in Kandy. All gazes fixate on Pakistan’s captain, Babar Azam. He teeters on the precipice of shattering an accolade held by Indian cricketing demigod Virat Kohli: the fastest captain to amass 2000 runs. To put numbers in perspective, Babar is just a mere six runs shy, having plundered 1994 runs in a scant 30 innings. Kohli, by contrast, took 36 innings to inscribe this milestone into his résumé.
And lest we forget, Babar is anything but complacent. On the past Wednesday, the chap set the pitch ablaze in the Asia Cup opener, rocketing past South Africa’s Hashim Amla to become the swiftest cricketer to notch up 19 ODI tons. It took Amla 104 innings to brandish this feat, Babar squashed it in a mere 102. Kohli? He languished at 124 innings to do the same.
Then comes his virtuoso performance against Nepal, one akin to an artist applying final brushstrokes to a masterpiece. Babar’s eye-watering 151 runs catapulted Pakistan to an astronomical 342/6. That display didn’t merely showcase his mettle; it was a psychological cannonade fired across India’s bow. “This game was an elixir for our morale ahead of India,” he stated exuberantly post-match.
Pivotal to this was Babar’s strategic ingenuity. First, an 86-run alliance with Mohammad Rizwan, who chipped in a brisk 44. Then, a cataclysmic 214-run partnership with Iftikhar Ahmed unfolded, marking Iftikhar’s debut ODI ton—an unbeaten 109.
Asia Cup 2023: Babar Azam Can Break An Unique Record Of Virat Kohli
On the flip side, Nepal was practically eviscerated, skittled out for a meager 104, thanks in part to Shadab Khan’s four-wicket haul and contributions from Shaheen Shah Afridi and Haris Rauf, who snagged two scalps each.
So, what conundrum does this pose for the mythic Pakistan-India clash? Babar is in incendiary form, his eyes on Kohli’s record—a record that means more than mere digits on a sheet. The morale in the Pakistani camp? You could practically touch the sky with it following their dismantling of Nepal.
ALSO READ ENG vs NZ: Sam Curran Takes A Super Grab In The Deep In The 1st T20I
As the weekend looms like a thundercloud on the horizon, the cricketing sphere is rife with speculation. Will Babar leapfrog Kohli? Will Pakistan wield triumph over their eternal rivals? The sands of time will provide the answer. But one immutable fact remains: Babar Azam is not just a cricketer; he’s a force of nature tantalizingly close to inscribing his name in the annals of cricketing legend.
