They can make your jaw drop with regal grace while playing the cover drive. They average in the high 50s and carry an insatiable appetite for runs. They run between the wickets as if their life hinges on it. They hunt records with indefatigable consistency. In short, Virat Kohli and Babar Azam are the batting heartbeats that their teams can't do without in one-day cricket.
The one key difference so far, though, is their record in India-Pakistan games. We’re primarily talking about 50-over cricket here, for neither has played an India-Pakistan Test. Kohli has 662 runs in 15 matches at an average of 55.16 against Pakistan. His highest score – a sublime 183 – came against Pakistan in 2012. He cracked a match-winning World Cup century against them in 2015. His latest hundred was also against them, at the Asia Cup in Colombo last month where he timed his innings to perfection and stitched together a record partnership of 233 runs with KL Rahul.
Azam, on the other hand, averages 28 in seven matches against India. He hasn’t yet scored a fifty. Even in his four T20Is, he has managed only 92 runs at 30.66 and a strike rate of 127.77. His only fifty – 68 off 52 balls – came as Pakistan defeated India by 10 wickets in the 2021 T20 World Cup, but it was Mohammad Rizwan who spearheaded the run chase.
It doesn't take away the fact that Azam is the fastest-ever to 5000 ODI runs. His average of 57.09 is the sixth best in ODI history. He’s had a hold on the top spot in ODI batting rankings for some time now. He has one of the most glorious cover drives in the game – head right on top of the ball, high left elbow and leaning into the stroke without ever looking out of balance. In a team historically beset by controversies, Azam has also brought a degree of stability as captain. He’s affable and says all the right things in press conferences. There’s basically a lot to like about him.
{{/usCountry}}It doesn't take away the fact that Azam is the fastest-ever to 5000 ODI runs. His average of 57.09 is the sixth best in ODI history. He’s had a hold on the top spot in ODI batting rankings for some time now. He has one of the most glorious cover drives in the game – head right on top of the ball, high left elbow and leaning into the stroke without ever looking out of balance. In a team historically beset by controversies, Azam has also brought a degree of stability as captain. He’s affable and says all the right things in press conferences. There’s basically a lot to like about him.
{{/usCountry}}But his record against India should still gnaw at him. Because performances in these matches count for a little bit more. It helps carve a defining legacy. It gives you a shot at immortality. It earns you grudging respect among players in the opposition. It makes you a figure of fear for fans across the border.
“Against India, we only come face to face in the World Cup. There is a big gap. It’s not because of a bowler or... I sometimes get out because of my mistakes. I will try to make as few mistakes as possible,” Azam said of his below-par run against India.
Outside of World Cups, he has met India twice in the Champions Trophy and four times in the Asia Cup. But what he perhaps means is that he has only played versus India in multi-nation meets where the opportunity to properly size up the bowling over the course of a series hasn’t been available.
But that’s also the allure of performing in these games. You may not have the luxury of regular exposure, but to still turn in a big performance is as revealing of your character as your technique and talent.
Kohli has scored on this count time and again. The T20 World Cup game in Melbourne last year is a case in point. Chasing 160, India were caught in a blind alley at 31/4. With the game slipping away, Kohli produced an innings of a lifetime -- those successive sixes off Haris Rauf in the penultimate over will be etched in memory -- amid an explosion of noise, digging into reserves of mental fortitude and steely resolve that such games demand.
For Azam, it's also about overcoming an inauspicious start to the World Cup. He was out for 5 in Pakistan’s opening game against Netherlands and for 10 against Sri Lanka. “My World Cup till right now has not been as it should have been, but hopefully you will see some difference in the next matches,” Azam said.
Azam will be hoping to make a difference no later than against India on Saturday. It will get his World Cup campaign back on track and put right a long-standing anomaly of not producing that defining performance against India.