Is Babar Azam the Sachin Tendulkar of Pakistan?

[daytrader]

What application of brains does Babar apply in the consistent losses Pakistan suffers with his presence?

Babar was telling Fakhar to slow down when Fakhar was dead set to chase 400 all on his own against NZ in the World Cup, knowing that the rest of the trash were incapable.

You're reference of the NZ match is the perfect example of Babar using brains. We won that match!!

If Fakhar had gotten out it would've opened up the possibility of more wickets as according to you, rest of the trash were incapable so we could've fallen behind on DLS. Awesome awareness by Babar and Fakhar.

Also how are you trying to pit Fakhar against Babar? You realize Fakhar is sitting out because he supported Babar the captain. Posters see through these childish narratives.

 

[mominsaigol]

I don't dislike, forget despise Babar. I just never thought he was destined for the type of greatness many Pakistanis were trying to push on him. Pretty sure I have posts here going back 4-5 years trying to tell Babar fans to reduce their expectations because they were going to end up hating him when he didn't deliver.

Yes I agree. When did I disagree?

Sachin is way more naturally talented then Babar is. He's a 16 year old who after a few games adjusted to 140kph speed? At 16? That's god level reactions lol.

My point was that Sachin was also hard working. He'd be useless and would have been dropped had he not worked hard.

His biggest example is later on in his career around 2006 where he was struggling with injuries and delayed reactions due to age. He completly changed his playing style afterwards and came back to his best. Takes one heck of a talent to completly change your entire structure.

Sachin's career would have ended in 2006 had he not been hard working.

Babar on the other hand is overrated, as he is not the most talented pakistani batter as the likes of yousaf were way more gifted. But Babar is talented still no doubt about it.

However he's lazy. It should not take 8 years to still figure out how to play spin or improve your backfoot play vs Pace.

The amount of times he's gotten dismissed of that pull shot or Stump out is comical. None of them were mcgrath level unplayable deliveries that Sachin had to face.

 

[Fanboy375]

Age is something that doesn’t matter.

Age is temporary performance is eternal

 

[Fanboy375]

Basically what you're trying to say is - Babar is as naturally gifted as Sachin. If only he'd worked harder and was more committed, he'd have the world at his feet. This is the kind of argument fans of his cousin used to throw out.

I like Babar. Always have.

But there is a reason you don't see 16-year-olds in international cricket (and I'm not even going to entertain those fake 14 and 15-year-olds Pakistan and IK in desperation tried to pull out to compete with Sachin). Playing international cricket at 16 is not something to be discounted. Those extra 1 or 2 years of growth makes a huge difference. I keep seeing here from time to time people saying - Oh Sachin debuted early and played long, that's why he was able to score so much. Like it's not the fantasy of every young cricketer to break into the national team, or every ageing cricketer to try and push for 1 more year in cricket

Well If Sachin played in Aus than he wouldn't debut in 16.Ind needed a batsman and none where better option than Sachin in that age

 

[pillionrider]

Yes I agree. When did I disagree?

Sachin is way more naturally talented then Babar is. He's a 16 year old who after a few games adjusted to 140kph speed? At 16? That's god level reactions lol.

My point was that Sachin was also hard working. He'd be useless and would have been dropped had he not worked hard.

His biggest example is later on in his career around 2006 where he was struggling with injuries and delayed reactions due to age. He completly changed his playing style afterwards and came back to his best. Takes one heck of a talent to completly change your entire structure.

Sachin's career would have ended in 2006 had he not been hard working.

Babar on the other hand is overrated, as he is not the most talented pakistani batter as the likes of yousaf were way more gifted. But Babar is talented still no doubt about it.

However he's lazy. It should not take 8 years to still figure out how to play spin or improve your backfoot play vs Pace.

The amount of times he's gotten dismissed of that pull shot or Stump out is comical. None of them were mcgrath level unplayable deliveries that Sachin had to face.

I guess my point is basically - the reason some Pakistanis are upset with Babar and finding reasons like laziness or lack of intent/commitment to the game is because they set such lofty standards for him and have since found themselves disappointed with what he's been able to deliver. Rather than realizing that their original assumption about his abilities was wrong, they are now trying to explain the result.

btw, I do agree that Babar has somewhat underachieved. Not to the extent that some of you believe. I think he has/had the game to be a better and more aggressive white-ball player.

 

[DeadlyVenom]

Basically what you're trying to say is - Babar is as naturally gifted as Sachin. If only he'd worked harder and was more committed, he'd have the world at his feet. This is the kind of argument fans of his cousin used to throw out.

I like Babar. Always have.

But there is a reason you don't see 16-year-olds in international cricket (and I'm not even going to entertain those fake 14 and 15-year-olds Pakistan and IK in desperation tried to pull out to compete with Sachin). Playing international cricket at 16 is not something to be discounted. Those extra 1 or 2 years of growth makes a huge difference. I keep seeing here from time to time people saying - Oh Sachin debuted early and played long, that's why he was able to score so much. Like it's not the fantasy of every young cricketer to break into the national team, or every ageing cricketer to try and push for 1 more year in cricket

You guys make too much of this jealousy theory. Pakistan honestly didn't care too much about Sachin. Certainly not enough to try and find and induct random 16 year olds in international out of jealousy. Thats a crazy theory.

 

[mominsaigol]

I guess my point is basically - the reason some Pakistanis are upset with Babar and finding reasons like laziness or lack of intent/commitment to the game is because they set such lofty standards for him and have since found themselves disappointed with what he's been able to deliver. Rather than realizing that their original assumption about his abilities was wrong, they are now trying to explain the result.

btw, I do agree that Babar has somewhat underachieved. Not to the extent that some of you believe. I think he has/had the game to be a better and more aggressive white-ball player.

The original assumption about his abilities are wrong only because Pakistan fans just like indian fans have a horrible habit of overglorfying their players.

For example a year ago they overglorfied Gill and now jaiswal. I'm not saying jaiswal can't become a future atg, but atm nothing implies that he'll reach their, starc contrast from Sachin and kohli who at the same age were 100x better then him. Infact kohli at age 24 was a beast incarnate and so was Sachin.

Similarly Pakistan fans foolishly put him next to kohli. Say what you want about kohli however in his prime he was the 2nd best test batter of this era only behind Steve smith and easily the best odi and t20 batter of his era.

It would have been a tall tall order for Babar to reach kohli's status due to his competition with other batters especially 2019 England who atm were all superior to Babar but they later fizzled out due to injuries(bairstow) or losing interest in odi(root) etc.

Kohli even in 201i was leaps and shoulders > them.

However none of this changes the fact that he is lazy. Babar is not a kohli level talent but he is still an amla, Root, Williamson level talent but he hasn't reached any of them.

even if you argue he isn't on their talent level, He's clearly more talented then the likes of Labu, Latham, will young, etc etc, however these guys are just more hard working.

Latham literally practised day and night to figure bumrah out while Babar doesn't even bother practising against spin or improving his backfoot. Infact every batting coach he's worked with has claimed that Babar doesn't listen and it's impossible to coach him.

 

[Kianig89]

Another rubbish theory presented here , Umer Akmal better than Babar Azam, really the hate has gone to their brain

 

[pillionrider]

Well If Sachin played in Aus than he wouldn't debut in 16.Ind needed a batsman and none where better option than Sachin in that age

It is possible. Ponting debuted at 20 but has said he felt he was ready at 19. I can agree with that. But the fact is, he debuted for his state at 17. So do you see how big a deal that number 16 is turning out to be.

I played school cricket around 15-16 age bracket for two schools that were the best in the state in terms of quality. Dravid, Uthappa, Mayank Agarwal, Devdutt Padikkal, Kirmani, Sadanand Vishwanatah are national players from these two teams. I was mediocre, so my point is not about me but about the quality of the teams. So we had this really fast bowler in our team who used to scare everyone. He was already playing junior state cricket and he'd have the keeper near the boundary (school-level grounds were obviously smaller). But it wa an intimidating sight for a batsman walking in to see the keeper close to the boundary. We thought he was crazy fast. But do you know how fast he actually was? 2 years later he was picked for the state senior team and was clocked as being as fast as Venkatesh Prasad Do you rate Prasad as a tearaway quick?


Now picture Sachin as that school-level playing kid facing up to Wasim Akram, Imran Khan and Waqar Younis on his debut tour. His next set of test matches was in New Zealand against Hadlee and a young Danny Morrison. Then he goes to England and faces some decent bowlers including Fraser and the quick Devon Malcolm. The next set of test matches they prepare for him are vs Mcdermott, Bruce Reid, Merv Hughes, Whitney, Reiffel, Moody and Warne. After this he's sent to South Africa vs Donald and Mcmillan. He literally was thrown into hellfires before he'd even turned 19.

The funny thing is, he was going to be picked even earlier when India went to West Indies. But some of his Mumbai seniors like Gavaskar and Vengsarkar felt it was too risky at 15 or maybe he'd just-turned-16. There is a video of him talking about how disappointed he is for not having been picked for the WI tour. Being a kid, he also is unsophisticated and says, I have no problems with pace. I've played Kapil Dev and other Indian pacers, no problems against them lol

 

[Croma]

Tendulkar was a destroyer. Used to score big 100's in ODI's. I remember those twin 100's against Australia in Sharjah.

He started accumulating runs after his tennis elbow injury. He got out in 90's so many times, otherwise he would have had who knows how many more 100's.

I just checked. He has 18 90's in ODI cricket.

 

[Fanboy375]

Tendulkar was a destroyer. Used to score big 100's in ODI's. I remember those twin 100's against Australia in Sharjah.

He started accumulating runs after his tennis elbow injury. He got out in 90's so many times, otherwise he would have had who knows how many more 100's.

I just checked. He has 18 90's in ODI cricket.

Lara probably sacrifice his ODI career for test in 2000s.His ODI record in 2000s was laughable.People may argue Lara is better because his runs means much since WI is weak nation and he lacked help like Sachin get from Ganguly or Dravid.But Lara wasn't all format best player while Sachin gave his everything

 

[pillionrider]

You guys make too much of this jealousy theory. Pakistan honestly didn't care too much about Sachin. Certainly not enough to try and find and induct random 16 year olds in international out of jealousy. Thats a crazy theory.

Oh Imran Khan was obsessed with Sachin. You should check the number of times he used to reference Sachin during those years and finally in Inzy thought he'd unearthed a worthy contender.

Afridi, Hasan Raza are some examples btw of other attempts

 

[pillionrider]

even if you argue he isn't on their talent level, He's clearly more talented then the likes of Labu, Latham, will young, etc etc, however these guys are just more hard working.

I agree that it is disgraceful that someone like Labu could end up being more respected than Babar in years to come. It's a joke if it happens.

 

[mominsaigol]

I agree that it is disgraceful that someone like Labu could end up being more respected than Babar in years to come. It's a joke if it happens.

Tbf babar is still ahead of him in status atm.

Labu's biggest achievement is essentially being the equivalent of James faulkner in a world cup atm.

Otherwise he's an okay test and odi player. But babar is regressing day by day.

 

[shaz619]

If Sachin Tendulkar is Dr. Evil, then Babar Azam is mini-me.

 

[DeadlyVenom]

If Sachin Tendulkar is Dr. Evil, then Babar Azam is mini-me.

That would be the first time someone is more mini than

 

[Mamoon]

Tendulkar was a failure vs Pakistan in Test cricket, so I don’t think there is any merit to the argument that Pakistan is jealous of Tendulkar. If anything, Pakistan should have a superiority complex.

 

[shaz619]

That would be the first time someone is more mini than

Am just glad at least one person got the reference Austin Powers never came out in third world countries

 

[Fanboy375]

Tendulkar was a failure vs Pakistan in Test cricket, so I don’t think there is any merit to the argument that Pakistan is jealous of Tendulkar. If anything, Pakistan should have a superiority complex.

Also they had more wins vs Ind in 90s.So Pak having Sachin nightmare is a myth