Former Australia fast bowler Brett Lee has picked Babar Azam as the batsman who, he feels, has the best cover drive in the world. Lee went for the Pakistani captain in regards to cover drive over India’s talisman batsman Virat Kohli.
The debate surrounding Babar and Kohli has been going on since Azam made his international debut and has been a consistent scorer for Pakistan across formats. On the other hand, Kohli, who was named the ICC Cricketer of the Decade, has suffered a dip in his numbers and has been stuck on 70 centuries for more than two years. This dip in Kohli’s form has coincided with the rise in Babar Azam’s numbers.
When it comes to cover drives, Brett Lee had his mind clear on who has a better cover drive – that is Babar Azam. Lee expressed awe at Babar’s brilliant technique.
Speaking with Pakistani speedster Shoaib Akhtar, Brett Lee said, “Babar Azam. I mean what a technique. What an amazing technique. You talk about a cover drive, I think he could have the best cover drive in the world cricket.”
My fellow speedster @BrettLee_58 about @babarazam258 .
This & more, coming soon. pic.twitter.com/5IHnrizRlY— Shoaib Akhtar (@shoaib100mph) January 31, 2022
Babar Azam was recently adjudged the ICC men’s ODI cricketer of the year 2021. The right-hander featured in just six ODIs in 2021, but plundered 405 runs at an average of 67.50, with a best of 158, against England at Edgbaston.
Virat Kohli, meanwhile, has shown signs of his return to his best with a high-quality immensely self-restraint 79-run knock versus South Africa in the third Test where he eschewed his instincts to chase deliveries outside off stump. In the ODI series, he notched up a couple of fifties. However, he couldn’t convert any of those into a three-figure score.
Kohli has also gone through a battle with the board. He contradicted BCCI President Sourav Ganguly’s statement that the board officials had asked him to reconsider his decision to quit as the T20I captain.
Virat Kohli was then removed as the ODI captain before going to South Africa. After losing the Test series to the Proteas, Kohli announced that he is relinquishing his Test captaincy. Now, with the captaincy duties done away with, Kohli can focus more on his batting and we may soon see the ‘King’ back at his best.
