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"Babar Azam for Pakistan is like Brian Lara was for West Indies": Wasim Akram

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Wasim Akram speaking in a pre-WTC final show

"All the four batters from fab four, Babar is now the fifth one. He's the youngest of the lot. If you see the calendar this World Test Championship, he's got 1500 runs, averaging 60, so he is catching up to those legends, those icons"

“This game needs an icon - either Virat Kohli, Joe Root, Williamson, or Babar Azam; maybe I am missing Smith from Australia as well. Everyone is averaging 50+, and they have been playing Test cricket for almost more than ten years. So, icons are very, very important. Babar Azam for Pakistan is like Brian Lara was for West Indies. He brings the people to the stadium," he further added.
 
For sure Babar gets a lot of attention from the crowd but all that will disappear unless he starts winning games for us.
 
MenInG said:
For sure Babar gets a lot of attention from the crowd but all that will disappear unless he starts winning games for us.
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Lara rarely won games for WI.

It's actually is a good comparison. Lara had 6 tons in wins against non-Minnows in over 100+ tests.
I think Babar has tons in wins against SL and NZ so far. Jus need a few more to catch up to Lara.
 
Buffet said:
Lara rarely won games for WI.

It's actually is a good comparison. Lara had 6 tons in wins against non-Minnows in over 100+ tests.
I think Babar has tons in wins against SL and NZ so far. Jus need a few more to catch up to Lara.
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Agreed.
Don't forget Lara had Curtly and Courtney too whereas Babar only has Shaheen as a proven bowler who still has a lot to prove
 
Ridiculous comparison - lara is a king, babar is a jester
 
Nope, Lara was at another level to Babar.

Babar is like Williamson.
 
Like the late Tony Cozier once said, Brian Lara wasn't good for West Indies cricket.
 
Abdullah said:
Agreed.
Don't forget Lara had Curtly and Courtney too whereas Babar only has Shaheen as a proven bowler who still has a lot to prove
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Only for the first couple years. Ambrose in particular was much less threatening towards the end of his career and they both retired in 2000. Lara was only halfway through his career at that point.

Windies really had no outstanding bowlers in the 2000s so found it very difficult to get 20 wickets in a match.
 
Officer Barbrady said:
Only for the first couple years. Ambrose in particular was much less threatening towards the end of his career and they both retired in 2000. Lara was only halfway through his career at that point.

Windies really had no outstanding bowlers in the 2000s so found it very difficult to get 20 wickets in a match.
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Lara played Test cricket for just 6 more years after the duo retired. He enjoyed playing with them for a little over 10 years.
 
I think Wasim was talking of what each batsman meant to his team. He wasn't saying Babar = Lara. If he meant that, well he's wrong.
 
Hayden speaking during the WTC final:

“In a big game, it is about runs on the board. Steve Smith is a maestro. When you think about the modern-day greats, Smith, Kohli, Babar Azam, these are once in a lifetime and once in a generation cricketers. So obviously in combination with Labuschagne, those two are extremely critical for Australian batting line-up. And then Pat Cummins as a captain and as a bowler as well,"
 
Hitman said:
Lara played Test cricket for just 6 more years after the duo retired. He enjoyed playing with them for a little over 10 years.
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He played 61 of his 131 tests after Ambrose retired so 47% of the total. It became very difficult to win test matches once those two were gone. Like babar, Lara was no great captain and better off playing as a regular player.
 
Lara was and ATG. He had the habit of playing monster innings and can stay in the crease a long time. Babar is not there yet.

I would compare younis khan to him. Even though Younis Khan wasnt as good as Lara, but Younis had the habit of playing monster innings aswell.
 
They're both leaders of rapidly declining Test teams.

Both better batsmen than captains. So quite an apt comparison.
 
Markhor said:
They're both leaders of rapidly declining Test teams.

Both better batsmen than captains. So quite an apt comparison.
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Babar is nowhere close to Lara, but I get what Wasim is saying where he means Babar might be able to inspire a generation. However, Lara was playing for a mediocre team yet he came up with some mind-blowing knocks to completely smash the opposition.

Babar plays for a slightly better team and is yet to dominate opposition like peak Lara could.
 
Lara was different level.

I watched him live a few times and it was like watching a magician with a wand who could hit any ball wherever he wanted.

He had the ability to hit the same delivery to any corner of the ground.
 
Sometimes numbers don’t tell the whole story. Lara was on another planet. That back lift
 
Babar is to Lara what Kevin Pietersen was to Viv Richards lmao.
 
He has to channelise his internal Lara against Bharatiyas
 
It’s disrespectful to the other enterprising batsmen in the Pakistan team for these kinds of over the top compliments. Lara single-handedly carried the West Indies team while Babar is a mental midget who disappears when the chips are down.

Typical Wasim Akram commentary devoid of any logic.
 
Lara was sadly a selfish individual on and off the field and his team mates in general despised him. He made no effort to mentor players both as captain and as an individual player. None of the players who played with him had too many great things to say about him.

He didn't leave much of a legacy.
 
Savak said:
Lara was sadly a selfish individual on and off the field and his team mates in general despised him. He made no effort to mentor players both as captain and as an individual player. None of the players who played with him had too many great things to say about him.

He didn't leave much of a legacy.
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On the other hand, Babar has the image of being the supportive leader.
 
So babar azam is both Don bradman and brian lara now?

I see now why we pakistani fans have such strong hatred for pur class players, it is statements like these that bring laughter of the world
 
They need to stop trying to media manufacture something out of babar.

Let him just concentrate on his game, you are trying to make him a legend during his peak playing days. He’s a great talent but he still has a lot to learn about batsmanship.

He was given the captaincy way too early and clearly it is affecting his form.

Let him learn to maximise his batting talent first.
 
Savak said:
Lara was sadly a selfish individual on and off the field and his team mates in general despised him. He made no effort to mentor players both as captain and as an individual player. None of the players who played with him had too many great things to say about him.

He didn't leave much of a legacy.
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His team mate Ridley Jackobs openly called him a selfish player in 2005.
 
Imo I have mixed opinions on lara.

The guy has the selfish milestone vibe about him. Killer and gun test bat though. Easily top 3 test bats of all time.
 
jeetu said:
Babar reminds me more of Kallis than Lara.
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That's actually who he is in reality. New age fans often go gaga over the statistical wonder that's Kallis & end up comparing him with Sachin, Lara,Ponting,Injamam etc on the same mould. In reality Kallis was nothing but purely a robot who could accumulate runs after runs but hardly those runs ever helped his side. To clear confusions here I am purely talking about Kallis the batsman only, not the all-rounder. Specially in odi's the man was nowhere near as effective as ABD, Gibbs,QDK or even Kirsten, Faf, Smith were. This is a man who went completely missing in the 03 wc when he was in his prime & SA desperately needed him to perform. A batting line up going through transition with Kirsten nearly finished & Smith just being a rookie, Gibbs had to take all pressure on himself as Mr. dependable as usual bottled at the most crisis hours. I can never forget neither forgive those ridiculous knocks that he played in dozens of knockouts & must win games like ct 02 against India, ct 06 against WI or t20 wc 09 against Pak. Either the man didn't score but ended up eating up deliveries or he scored but in the process completely killed his team. Anybody wants to criticize Misbah for tuktuk brand? Here's a man who had been doing it long before & did many many times but just never got noticed. His selfishness always sort of got buried under those incredible numbers. He is lucky he was born in sena not sc, because if he did he would have never been worshipped on such ridiculous manner. Most people often just look at his numbers & end up declaring him atg/goat. Watching his entire career from start to finish I can confidently say the guy was all flash very rarely substantial. This is why I hate this recent phenomena where just some dumb numbers & averages have become all the means of judging a player's true capability & worth.
 
VForVendetta said:
That's actually who he is in reality. New age fans often go gaga over the statistical wonder that's Kallis & end up comparing him with Sachin, Lara,Ponting,Injamam etc on the same mould. In reality Kallis was nothing but purely a robot who could accumulate runs after runs but hardly those runs ever helped his side. To clear confusions here I am purely talking about Kallis the batsman only, not the all-rounder. Specially in odi's the man was nowhere near as effective as ABD, Gibbs,QDK or even Kirsten, Faf, Smith were. This is a man who went completely missing in the 03 wc when he was in his prime & SA desperately needed him to perform. A batting line up going through transition with Kirsten nearly finished & Smith just being a rookie, Gibbs had to take all pressure on himself as Mr. dependable as usual bottled at the most crisis hours. I can never forget neither forgive those ridiculous knocks that he played in dozens of knockouts & must win games like ct 02 against India, ct 06 against WI or t20 wc 09 against Pak. Either the man didn't score but ended up eating up deliveries or he scored but in the process completely killed his team. Anybody wants to criticize Misbah for tuktuk brand? Here's a man who had been doing it long before & did many many times but just never got noticed. His selfishness always sort of got buried under those incredible numbers. He is lucky he was born in sena not sc, because if he did he would have never been worshipped on such ridiculous manner. Most people often just look at his numbers & end up declaring him atg/goat. Watching his entire career from start to finish I can confidently say the guy was all flash very rarely substantial. This is why I hate this recent phenomena where just some dumb numbers & averages have become all the means of judging a player's true capability & worth.
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Kallis is the biggest fraud ever
 
TheSultan said:
No-one will ever have a series like Brian did in 1999 against the best team in the world. Anyone who says he played for stats and not win any games should wake up and apologise.

And someone mentioned Ridley Jacobs lol. Who cares what Ridley Jacobs thinks
Click to expand...

I agree with you.

Ridley who? He’s not even the greatest Ridley of all time.
 
TheSultan said:
No-one will ever have a series like Brian did in 1999 against the best team in the world. Anyone who says he played for stats and not win any games should wake up and apologise.

And someone mentioned Ridley Jacobs lol. Who cares what Ridley Jacobs thinks
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His handling of goat's like Mcgrath, Warne in 99 & Murali in 02 is something even Sachin or Ponting couldn't come close to achieve & here we are talking about Babar the king of softies! Now case in point was he selfish? Absolutely, I think the man himself will admit he had a massive ego & for a long period he was obsessed on winning the battle against Sachin. This caused some rifts within the team & perennial jobbers & bottom feeders like Ridley Jacobs, Jimmy Addams etc blamed all the team failures on him. The truth is, all great players are selfish in core, so just singling him out is ridiculous.
 
TheSultan said:
No-one will ever have a series like Brian did in 1999 against the best team in the world. Anyone who says he played for stats and not win any games should wake up and apologise.

And someone mentioned Ridley Jacobs lol. Who cares what Ridley Jacobs thinks
Click to expand...
Yea, who cares about what Ridley Jacobs, someone who played alongside Brian Lara for more than 10 years says 😂😂. I mean the guy merely shared the dressing room with Brian Lara for more than 10 years. What does he know what type of a team player Lara was. What matters is what a random Pakistani fan, who has no idea about what Lara is in real life says.
 
Add to that, a former West Indian great Michael Holding, always, always called Lara selfish player who wasn't good for West Indies cricket. The exact same thing was said by Tony Cozier.
 
I personally think for ex West Indies players and commentators there was denial and delusion in how swiftly they were sliding from the dizzying heights of the 80s. Look at where they are now - they didn’t even make it to the World Cup

Lara was made the scapegoat, but the reality was that they just were not producing the players anymore, the unity in the Islands wasn’t as it was before. Lara, Ambrose and Walsh kept them afloat for a decade.

Now you can say Lara failed to unite the team and wasn’t a great captain etc, and there’s definitely an element of truth to that.

But what people don’t realise was that what Clive Lloyd did to bring the unity in the first place was nothing short of extraordinary. Viv kept it going because it was essentially the same set of players with a couple of changes. The decline and fractions actually started with Richie Richardson’s reign and continued with Lara and Walsh.

So Lara (and Richardson etc) couldn’t do what Clive Lloyd did, and there’s no shame in that. Not many people could.
 
Hitman said:
You mean every captain kept not declaring the innings till after lunch of the 3rd days plays after choosing to bat first?

Lara's record selfish: Ponting
Click to expand...
One test you can pick up? In his whole career? That too after England had an unassailable 3-0 lead in the series? What was there to play for? If it was while the series was alive, then there’s a case to answer. This is a non story.
 
TheSultan said:
One test you can pick up? In his whole career? That too after England had an unassailable 3-0 lead in the series? What was there to play for? If it was while the series was alive, then there’s a case to answer. This is a non story.
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I'm pretty sure his team mate Ridley Jacobs, former West Indian great Michael Holding, and Tony Cozier have better clue about the type of person Brian Lara was that you and me? Their opinion of Lara wasn't formed over a single Test match. What you feel is irrelevant, what matters is what those people who worked with him felt.
 
Hitman said:
I'm pretty sure his team mate Ridley Jacobs, former West Indian great Michael Holding, and Tony Cozier have better clue about the type of person Brian Lara was that you and me? Their opinion of Lara wasn't formed over a single Test match. What you feel is irrelevant, what matters is what those people who worked with him felt.
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Ok cheers and Murali said Lara was the greatest batsman he ever saw.

We could go round in circles and frankly I don’t have the time. To you yours, to me mine.
 
Bhaijaan said:
Kallis is the biggest fraud ever
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That's kind of harsh, dude is an allrounder.

He's an accumulator but also contributed with the ball so you can still excuse his soft scores.

Babar is a pure bat, he has no excuse to hide in.
 
mominsaigol said:
That's kind of harsh, dude is an allrounder.

He's an accumulator but also contributed with the ball so you can still excuse his soft scores.

Babar is a pure bat, he has no excuse to hide in.
Click to expand...

Kallis was the cancer to Southern Afrikaan’s white ball cricket for 10 years.

They never realized he was the one holding them back.
 
TheSultan said:
I personally think for ex West Indies players and commentators there was denial and delusion in how swiftly they were sliding from the dizzying heights of the 80s. Look at where they are now - they didn’t even make it to the World Cup

Lara was made the scapegoat, but the reality was that they just were not producing the players anymore, the unity in the Islands wasn’t as it was before. Lara, Ambrose and Walsh kept them afloat for a decade.

Now you can say Lara failed to unite the team and wasn’t a great captain etc, and there’s definitely an element of truth to that.

But what people don’t realise was that what Clive Lloyd did to bring the unity in the first place was nothing short of extraordinary. Viv kept it going because it was essentially the same set of players with a couple of changes. The decline and fractions actually started with Richie Richardson’s reign and continued with Lara and Walsh.

So Lara (and Richardson etc) couldn’t do what Clive Lloyd did, and there’s no shame in that. Not many people could.
Click to expand...
Lara cannot be blamed for the systemic weaknesses that caused the decline of WI cricket. However Lara's unprofessionalism and indiscipline is undeniable.

In Curtly Ambrose's book, he mentions how Lara undermined the captaincy of Richie Richardson and how even the mild mannered Richardson exploded at Lara for his egotistical behaviour during the 1995 tour of England. He literally abandoned the tour after that incident before being persuaded to return !

Maybe that's Ambrose defending a fellow Antiguan - but there were several WI coaches and managers in the 90s including Rohan Kanhai, Wes Hall, Andy Roberts and Malcolm Marshall who complained about the senior players' attitudes towards training, Lara chiefly among them.

Tony Cozier, who always remained an impartial voice amidst WI's bitter inter-island squabbling, said "time and again the mercurial temperament of a genius has been exposed with upsetting consequences."

That includes withdrawing from the 95/96 Australia tri-series just two days before, turning up late before a Test vs Sri Lanka, having fitness coaches sacked for supposedly overtraining the players, and orchestrating a player strike at Heathrow Airport before the 1998 tour of South Africa. Then President Mandela had to write to the team to convince them to play !

No conversation of cricket's ATGs is complete without Brian Charles Lara. No discussion of ATG innings is credible without Barbados 1999. But Lara's failures as a manager of men partly contributed to WI's decline in the 1990s and 2000s.
 
@mominsaigol there's no excuse for Kallis to score soft runs just because he was an all-rounder. Pollock, Cairns, Klusner, Razzak, Flintoff, Neil Johnson etc were also all-rounders, all are his contemporaries, some are his teammates. They never did such soft scoring & neither they were allowed to.
This man like @Bhaijaan has correctly put out was a cancer to SA white ball side. Many times he directly contributed on their collapse & defeats with his tuktuk brand. I have already given some of those examples above. You will find many more if you dig. It was frustrating & he was extremely divisive in his own country. He is the biggest example of statistics fudge. You had to be there to see how anticlimatic this man was for his team. Babar in all honesty is far better odi batsman than him.
 
Markhor said:
Lara cannot be blamed for the systemic weaknesses that caused the decline of WI cricket. However Lara's unprofessionalism and indiscipline is undeniable.

In Curtly Ambrose's book, he mentions how Lara undermined the captaincy of Richie Richardson and how even the mild mannered Richardson exploded at Lara for his egotistical behaviour during the 1995 tour of England. He literally abandoned the tour after that incident before being persuaded to return !

Maybe that's Ambrose defending a fellow Antiguan - but there were several WI coaches and managers in the 90s including Rohan Kanhai, Wes Hall, Andy Roberts and Malcolm Marshall who complained about the senior players' attitudes towards training, Lara chiefly among them.

Tony Cozier, who always remained an impartial voice amidst WI's bitter inter-island squabbling, said "time and again the mercurial temperament of a genius has been exposed with upsetting consequences."

That includes withdrawing from the 95/96 Australia tri-series just two days before, turning up late before a Test vs Sri Lanka, having fitness coaches sacked for supposedly overtraining the players, and orchestrating a player strike at Heathrow Airport before the 1998 tour of South Africa. Then President Mandela had to write to the team to convince them to play !

No conversation of cricket's ATGs is complete without Brian Charles Lara. No discussion of ATG innings is credible without Barbados 1999. But Lara's failures as a manager of men partly contributed to WI's decline in the 1990s and 2000s.
Click to expand...
Lara was a controversial divisive man, it's just that due to his impeccable ability of playing those freakish knocks always made the highlights. Gave him the leeways. Also he was tad lucky not to be born in sc, otherwise all this stunts & diva like attitudes would have been visible a lot earlier. Media would have made a mess of all this. Thus it would taint if not his legacy, definitely his popularity among general public.
 
Markhor said:
Lara cannot be blamed for the systemic weaknesses that caused the decline of WI cricket. However Lara's unprofessionalism and indiscipline is undeniable.

In Curtly Ambrose's book, he mentions how Lara undermined the captaincy of Richie Richardson and how even the mild mannered Richardson exploded at Lara for his egotistical behaviour during the 1995 tour of England. He literally abandoned the tour after that incident before being persuaded to return !

Maybe that's Ambrose defending a fellow Antiguan - but there were several WI coaches and managers in the 90s including Rohan Kanhai, Wes Hall, Andy Roberts and Malcolm Marshall who complained about the senior players' attitudes towards training, Lara chiefly among them.

Tony Cozier, who always remained an impartial voice amidst WI's bitter inter-island squabbling, said "time and again the mercurial temperament of a genius has been exposed with upsetting consequences."

That includes withdrawing from the 95/96 Australia tri-series just two days before, turning up late before a Test vs Sri Lanka, having fitness coaches sacked for supposedly overtraining the players, and orchestrating a player strike at Heathrow Airport before the 1998 tour of South Africa. Then President Mandela had to write to the team to convince them to play !

No conversation of cricket's ATGs is complete without Brian Charles Lara. No discussion of ATG innings is credible without Barbados 1999. But Lara's failures as a manager of men partly contributed to WI's decline in the 1990s and 2000s.
Click to expand...
Great write up and great points. Yes Lara was not the easiest person and there obviously always is ego involvement. However, it is also a damning indictment of WICB too.

The board makes the PCB look professional.
 
VForVendetta said:
Lara was a controversial divisive man, it's just that due to his impeccable ability of playing those freakish knocks always made the highlights. Gave him the leeways. Also he was tad lucky not to be born in sc, otherwise all this stunts & diva like attitudes would have been visible a lot earlier. Media would have made a mess of all this. Thus it would taint if not his legacy, definitely his popularity among general public.
Click to expand...
In the SC it probably would have been tolerated. Look at what the infighters of the 90s have got away with.

Great players in the SC are always tolerated.
 
I still rate babar despite the flak he gets on here, but Lara was in a different solar system.

Sure he had issues with his ego, but looking at it from a pure batting ability standpoint in my opinion he is the greatest.

Players like Sachin, Ponting, Kallis etc. had better numbers, but lara still put up world class figures in a declining team. In terms of reliable partners he had chanderpaul and occasionally sarwan and hooper but that's all.
 
TheSultan said:
In the SC it probably would have been tolerated. Look at what the infighters of the 90s have got away with.

Great players in the SC are always tolerated.
Click to expand...
It would have been tolerated by the system as in the board, but the media & general public wouldn't let go. Imran, Miandad, Malik,W's were all criticized heavily whenever any of their stunts came into public. It's the board which always allowed the guys let go.
 
TheSultan said:
Ok cheers and Murali said Lara was the greatest batsman he ever saw.

We could go round in circles and frankly I don’t have the time. To you yours, to me mine.
Click to expand...
Goodness! Until now you didn't care what plaudits a player receives from his peers. Now suddenly Murali rating Lara means something to you? :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO:
 
VForVendetta said:
It would have been tolerated by the system as in the board, but the media & general public wouldn't let go. Imran, Miandad, Malik,W's were all criticized heavily whenever any of their stunts came into public. It's the board which always allowed the guys let go.
Click to expand...
Correct he would have been criticised heavily as we all know.

But even now Imran, Wasim, Miandad are still respected with obviously some critics.

Waqar less so - but he created a lot of haters with his pathetic coaching stints
 
Mohammad Hafeez on Babr's batting: “It’s not like his performances are bad. As a cricketer, as a player his performances are good but, unfortunately, the expectations from him and the comparisons with him aren’t fair. He is a very, very good player – in the pool of players currently in Pakistan, he is the best player. But when you compare him with greats, then it’s unfair with Babar’s talent.

“When he’s called a great Pakistan player, then I have doubts over it. Those who say that probably haven’t seen greats of the game – from Pakistan and around the world. Yes, he is a very, very good player. He is not great yet. He has to prove a lot of right things – and there are stages yet to come in his career. We are putting a tag on him before he’s reached those stages. That’s pressure on him, and when he’s not able to perform in big tournaments, the load of expectations is so high, that people then deal it in a wrong way.”

This World Cup, he has given away his wicket too easily:
- Against Netherlands and Australia: he pulled ahalf tracker from a spinner to midwicket
- Against Lanka and South africa, he tickled an edge to the keeper from deliveries that was going down the legside
- Against India, perhpas he got a bit unlucky with a ball that kept low

He is a good player, but heeds to up his rate, and not give away his wicket too easily
 
Comparing Inzamam to Lara would've been more fitting.

Babar is more like Kraigg Brathwaite of Pakistan.
 
These kind of statements ruin babar honestly.

I hate the fab 4 so much 🤣🤣. Mainly because their so overrated.

Smith even in his prime is no where close to pointing, but people kept saying Smith is pointing Level even though pointing was scoring 150 scores in the harsh pp and one ball era.

Similarly Morgan outright stated root was a mistake in 2019 and would have been better to have Alex Hales at no 3, yet for some people root is apparently an atg for England lol.

Babar is in the same boat. Nowhere close to any legend. And I mean no disrespect. But frankly anytime theirs even semi decent bowling babar makes an okay 50, and if he's lucky an okay 100. None of those 50's or 100's are memorable or take the game away from anyone. Only innings people cling on to is NZ 2019 innings but that innings is more so an anchor take it through innings and not an ultimate domination innings like all the atg's have played.
 
mominsaigol said:
These kind of statements ruin babar honestly.

I hate the fab 4 so much 🤣🤣. Mainly because their so overrated.

Smith even in his prime is no where close to pointing, but people kept saying Smith is pointing Level even though pointing was scoring 150 scores in the harsh pp and one ball era.

Similarly Morgan outright stated root was a mistake in 2019 and would have been better to have Alex Hales at no 3, yet for some people root is apparently an atg for England lol.

Babar is in the same boat. Nowhere close to any legend. And I mean no disrespect. But frankly anytime theirs even semi decent bowling babar makes an okay 50, and if he's lucky an okay 100. None of those 50's or 100's are memorable or take the game away from anyone. Only innings people cling on to is NZ 2019 innings but that innings is more so an anchor take it through innings and not an ultimate domination innings like all the atg's have played.
Click to expand...

Compared to cricketers before 2000, today's cricketers are very average. Most of the modern day cricketers are pampered and at times overpaid.
 
sweep_shot said:
Compared to cricketers before 2000, today's cricketers are very average. Most of the modern day cricketers are pampered and at times overpaid.
Click to expand...
Tbf kohli, de villers, sangakara, Dhoni, Gill etc in, they'd all do fine in the old era.

Kohli and rohit even in the old era would do well. Rohit would be averaging 35 with a sr of 90 which is basically gilly level and kohli would be around pointing's 40 average.

Babar would Average like 25 if he played in that era. Those banana inswings and banana rank turns that were achieved with the old ball and those harsh pp rules to ensure game is balanced isn't something babar can handle one bit.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Pakistan's so called best batsmen is just a bootleg Mohammad yousaf. He scores soft runs like yousaf but unlike yousaf who did it consistently against top tier goat bowling, babar only does it against minnows, only time babar bullies is if the attack is completly pathetic like nepal or the d string sa attack he played.

If yousaf got those attacks he'd become the 2nd coming de villers lol
 
Buffet said:
Lara rarely won games for WI.

It's actually is a good comparison. Lara had 6 tons in wins against non-Minnows in over 100+ tests.
I think Babar has tons in wins against SL and NZ so far. Jus need a few more to catch up to Lara.
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That being said. Lara played in a different era. He also has the small matter of the record highest scores in test and first class cricket as well as the audacity to go and break the record again having had it broken by Hayden. Which say less about the scores and more about the character of the guy.

Key innings vs Australia aswell, including multiple double tons and that 153* in an era where chasing 311 was absurd (and still isnt easy).

They're levels apart. Lara was a more attacking player aswell.

I'd go as far as to say Babar won't ever match Lara.
 
Waseem is absolutely right Lara in late WI side was kind of lone warrior in terms of World class batsman , but he found Chris Gayle though WI fortune didn't changed much, that is the fear for Babar Pakistan does not need 1 or 2 world class players rather the team only has a solitary World class player infact man to man WI of late 90s/early 00 might Pakistan

WI Natwest Series Sqaud 2004 v Pakistan WC squad 2023, Man to Man ☆ is the winner

☆ Gayle Imam
D.Smith ☆ Shafiq
☆ Lara Babar
☆Sarwan Saud
☆Chanderpaul Iftikhar
☆ Bravo Shadab
☆ Powell Nawaz
Jacobs ☆ Rizwan
Dw Smith ☆SSA
☆Bradshaw WasimJr.
☆Best Rauf

Man to Man WI 8-3 Pak, though a slight argument can be made on Babar v Lara but the latter wins it having full command on spin, done forget this WI team was very average yet they somehow fluked a CT
 
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