What's new

Will Babar Azam break Virat's record of 50 ODI Centuries?

Virat Kohli is not yet finished . If he carries on until next couple of years he might end between 55-60.
He will retire after this WC from ODIs at least to focus on his Test Average. He knows he needs to retire at 50+ Test Average to be considered a GOAT. That is his target for sure.
 
He is on track but very less ODIs scheduled in the next few years and they will only get less

So Virat's record will stand till the time ODIs are finished altogether
 
What's with the troll post.

Of course he won't. He'll be lucky if he gets to 150-160 ODIs. Let alone 250.

We know Kohli broke the record today - just enjoy rather than being silly about it.
 
Babar azam can provided he maintains his peak form. This WC23 didn't show any promise
 
He will retire after this WC from ODIs at least to focus on his Test Average. He knows he needs to retire at 50+ Test Average to be considered a GOAT. That is his target for sure.
For the last 3-4 years, he has not been playing as many matches as he used to, often rested, especially against weaker and smaller teams. He can continue with the same approach, playing only a few matches and taking rest. This strategy will help him prolong his ODI career until the next World Cup.

He should consider retiring from T20 cricket after the next World Cup, with the main focus on Test cricket.
 
On a serious note

Not sure when Babar will beat Saeed Anwar’s 20 century record first
God no, ik that'll happen but everyone will start trolling us 24/7 from their on 😂😂.

Babar vs saeed Anwar 💀
 
Saeed Anwar was a class player

He would have scored 30-35 ODI centuries in this era of batting
Ik bro, but people say things like babar is the greatest Pakistani batsmen of all time 😂
 
Ik bro, but people say things like babar is the greatest Pakistani batsmen of all time 😂
He is probably their GOAT number 3, very good player of pace. But Inzimam for me was a level above when it comes to overall batting and understanding match situations

I’ve not seen Miandad bat but I’m sure Babar isn’t better than him when it comes to batting sense either
 
He is probably their GOAT number 3, very good player of pace. But Inzimam for me was a level above when it comes to overall batting and understanding match situations

I’ve not seen Miandad bat but I’m sure Babar isn’t better than him when it comes to batting sense either
Babar isn't even on yousaf's Level lol.
 
Here is a comparison of their records after equal number of innings. Although Babar has a slight edge, he will not be able to overtake Kohli because a) his critics him force him to take early retirement and b) Pakistan will never play as many matches as India in the same duration.

babarkohli.png
 
Here is a comparison of their records after equal number of innings. Although Babar has a slight edge, he will not be able to overtake Kohli because a) his critics him force him to take early retirement and b) Pakistan will never play as many matches as India in the same duration.

View attachment 139135
Babar stats would be horrible if the sides were A string. He got exposed this cup

Actually he got exposed 2022 t20 cup as well
 
Anyone who saw Saeed Anwar would rate him much higher than Babar.
No that's false. Ik how fans work. True fans know the power of saeed Anwar.

Fake or delusional fans think rizwan and Babar are the 2 greatest Pakistani batsmen all time
 
If God wills it then he can.

Remember Kohli was deemed finished a while back then back with a vengeance.
 
ODI format is slowly becoming obsolete.

Will Babar get to play enough ODI games? If yes, he can definitely break it.
 
No that's false. Ik how fans work. True fans know the power of saeed Anwar.

Fake or delusional fans think rizwan and Babar are the 2 greatest Pakistani batsmen all time
Saeed Anwar till this day remains one of the finest timers of the ball I've seen.
 
Lol, Babar is already exposed infront of the world. He will be lucky to go past 25 hundreds if he regularly play against quality teams.
Iyer >>>>> Babar
 
Saeed Anwar was a class player

He would have scored 30-35 ODI centuries in this era of batting
Anwar would have scored all that at 100+ SR. He would have been like Fakhar on steroids, would have scored multiple 200s against the top teams as well. He played in a tough era for batting.
 
He is probably their GOAT number 3, very good player of pace. But Inzimam for me was a level above when it comes to overall batting and understanding match situations

I’ve not seen Miandad bat but I’m sure Babar isn’t better than him when it comes to batting sense either

I’ve seen Miandad bat. He was and is Pakistan’s greatest batsmen.

As an a Indian fan, Miandad was terrifying. Babar is very good, but in comparison is as scary to me as cotton candy.
 
Teams are playing not a lot of ODI cricket at the moment so it seems very unlikely that Babar Azam is going to get anyway near the 50 ODI centuries mark. He has the class but he is not going to play near 300 ODI matches like Virat Kohli so his number of centuries would never going to be that high.
 
Teams are playing not a lot of ODI cricket at the moment so it seems very unlikely that Babar Azam is going to get anyway near the 50 ODI centuries mark. He has the class but he is not going to play near 300 ODI matches like Virat Kohli so his number of centuries would never going to be that high.
He does not have the class.

But he'll schedule a 10 match odi series with Namibia and Nepal to break it 👀
 
10 match series v Zimbabwe

10 match series v Nepal

5 match series v Sri Lanka (home and away)

5 match series v Bangladesh (home and away)


Massive opportunity there
The team Kohli has most centuries against are SL and BD? Minnow basher?
 
The team Kohli has most centuries against are SL and BD? Minnow basher?
Bro why are you desperate on trying to convince everyone as well as yourself that babar azam is superior?

On top of your babar azam pfp and your comments, no one can take such things seriously cause the comments are clearly filled with bias.

Babar azam is not the worst batsmen, in fact he is a decent batsmen and has played good knocks for Pakistan even if those picks came against weak teams, on top of that he isn't a complete dud against quality bowling cause he still scores on occasion and did top the run charts in 2021 wc t20.

But you need to be honest with yourself, he has flopped hard in 2022 Asia cup amd 2022 t20 world cup. He flopped hard in 2023 Asia cup when Nepal was taken out of the equation and in 2023 wc his 50's were painful and all resulted in match losses. He was badly outperformed by kohli, Rohit, Quinton etc.

In Sri Lanka test series hasaranga bullied him whereas saud and Abdullah put performed him.

Babar is not the worst batsmen and he's an okay bat, but you're being beyond dishonest with yourself if you're going to such extreme lengths, the results are their to see, only way to counter argue is to create a narrative about main character syndrome for babar, which obviously results in a fantasy tale.
 
Considering how less ODIs Pakistan plays its difficult. Pakistan will not play a single ODI until November 2024 which means by the time Babar plays his next ODI he will be on the wrong side of 30. Even if Babar plays till 38 he will have to score 31 100s in 8 years which is a tough ask.
 
The team Kohli has most centuries against are SL and BD? Minnow basher?
Hope you also point out that in 1 of his centuries against SL India had to chase 320 in 40 overs against the likes of Malinga. Which he did authoritatively.
 
Babar azam isn't anywhere close to kohli, never has, never will be, never can be.

Their is no such thing as another kohli.

If babar wants to be an ATG then he needs to become his own brand, in reality he's trying too hard to copy the king stands tall moniker that belonged to kohli and pak media is too obessesed with comparing him to kohli and letting him be his own thing.

First step Babar needs to do is get rid of his milestone habit, 2nd step is to learn how to win games.

^^ Do these 2 things and he'll become his own brand and an atg, sadly he hasn't been capable of achieving either
 
Babar azam isn't anywhere close to kohli, never has, never will be, never can be.

Their is no such thing as another kohli.

If babar wants to be an ATG then he needs to become his own brand, in reality he's trying too hard to copy the king stands tall moniker that belonged to kohli and pak media is too obessesed with comparing him to kohli and letting him be his own thing.

First step Babar needs to do is get rid of his milestone habit, 2nd step is to learn how to win games.

^^ Do these 2 things and he'll become his own brand and an atg, sadly he hasn't been capable of achieving either

Completely agree and on top of this he lacks that star quality, charisma, personality and unique identity. This is why he’s a wannabe Kohli, which is quite sad really because the PCB invested in him from a very young age.
Other Pakistan players didn’t get this kind of opportunity which puts into perspective what a let down he’s turned out to be.

But this is what he deserves when his clique priorities took over.
 
Completely agree and on top of this he lacks that star quality, charisma, personality and unique identity. This is why he’s a wannabe Kohli, which is quite sad really because the PCB invested in him from a very young age.
Other Pakistan players didn’t get this kind of opportunity which puts into perspective what a let down he’s turned out to be.

But this is what he deserves when his clique priorities took over.
Imo, when I first saw him bat he could have been what people envisioned umar akmal to have become when he first made his debut

Aka an X factor impact batsmen who could basically single handiedly win you games. When he made his debut he didn't have the six hitting style of umar but his game awareness was excellent. He didn't throw his wicket away, he already had cricketing strokes like the cover drive etc and unlike umar who got discarded from no to no 6, Babar would be in a misbah free era amd babar also didn't seem like the media hype ego guy.

So not a kohli but very similar to rachin ravindra type players.

But I was so wrong, it wasn't even funny. I was wrong in every aspect lol.
 
Imo, when I first saw him bat he could have been what people envisioned umar akmal to have become when he first made his debut

Aka an X factor impact batsmen who could basically single handiedly win you games. When he made his debut he didn't have the six hitting style of umar but his game awareness was excellent. He didn't throw his wicket away, he already had cricketing strokes like the cover drive etc and unlike umar who got discarded from no to no 6, Babar would be in a misbah free era amd babar also didn't seem like the media hype ego guy.

So not a kohli but very similar to rachin ravindra type players.

But I was so wrong, it wasn't even funny. I was wrong in every aspect lol.

I had a lot of hope in Babar. I thought he would kick in white ball after the 2019 WC but his true calibre is an average of 40 with a 80-85 strike rate. I mentioned this at the beginning of the World Cup and that’s exactly what ended up accomplishing in this tournament.

PCB need to educate players how to handle new found fame, spotlight and the importance of discipline when it comes to diet and work ethic.

There’s an obvious pattern. You give a player of Babar’s profile captain, their work ethic and diet goes downhill. We saw the same with Sarfraz as well.

This creates a knee jerk reaction whereby causing the PCB to go to the opposite end of the spectrum and make Shan Masood as one of the captains.

I like Shan but outside Australia and South Africa he’s poor.
 
Nobody cares about these 50 hundreds and Babar shouldn't either. Kohli has so many dominant and memorable match winning hundreds abroad including in Aus, SA. Babar should focus on that. Match winning innings abroad against good teams. Numbers mean nothing unless those innings are memorable.
 
I had a lot of hope in Babar. I thought he would kick in white ball after the 2019 WC but his true calibre is an average of 40 with a 80-85 strike rate. I mentioned this at the beginning of the World Cup and that’s exactly what ended up accomplishing in this tournament.

PCB need to educate players how to handle new found fame, spotlight and the importance of discipline when it comes to diet and work ethic.

There’s an obvious pattern. You give a player of Babar’s profile captain, their work ethic and diet goes downhill. We saw the same with Sarfraz as well.

This creates a knee jerk reaction whereby causing the PCB to go to the opposite end of the spectrum and make Shan Masood as one of the captains.

I like Shan but outside Australia and South Africa he’s poor.

Babar failed caused he tried to become another kohli rather them becoming himself.

No one looks at kohli and says, this kid is the next Sachin. Kohli and Sachin are their own brands.

Kohli specialises as a chase master and the X factor No 3, no one will ever do it better then him.

Babar should have looked at lara, Pointing, Gilchrist, Sanath and other atg and noticed what made them special and stand put.

He needed to figure out his own method to win games, thats what makes an atg.

Babar hasn't cracked the code of winning games
 
List all his centuries against each nation
10 v Sri Lanka
9 v West Indies
8 v Australia
6 v New Zealand
5 v South Africa
5 v Bangladesh
3 v England
3 v Pakistan
1 v Zimbabwe

24 hundreds at home in ODIs
21 hundreds away in ODIs
5 hundreds at a neutral venue in ODIs
 
10 v Sri Lanka
9 v West Indies
8 v Australia
6 v New Zealand
5 v South Africa
5 v Bangladesh
3 v England
3 v Pakistan
1 v Zimbabwe

24 hundreds at home in ODIs
21 hundreds away in ODIs
5 hundreds at a neutral venue in ODIs
What qualifies as a neutral venue?
 
10 v Sri Lanka
9 v West Indies
8 v Australia
6 v New Zealand
5 v South Africa
5 v Bangladesh
3 v England
3 v Pakistan
1 v Zimbabwe

24 hundreds at home in ODIs
21 hundreds away in ODIs
5 hundreds at a neutral venue in ODIs

25 out of 50 centuries came against SL, Windies, BD, and Zimbabwe. Wow!

If Tendulkar, Anwar, Jayasuriya etc. played so many games against weak sides, they probably would've scored 50-60 centuries too.
 
Pakistan team has not played much ODI as compared to other top teams and there are not many in the future as well. I highly doubt the fact that Babar will come close to that record. no chance
 
25 out of 50 centuries came against SL, Windies, BD, and Zimbabwe. Wow!

If Tendulkar, Anwar, Jayasuriya etc. played so many games against weak sides, they probably would've scored 50-60 centuries too.
Or you can look at this way

25 of his 50 100s came against better team/bowling attacks (SENA + Pak).

(Glass half empty = Glass half full)
 
As bad as Babar is right now, he could have been a genuinely great batsman if he didn't lose his way when he was made the captain some 2 years ago.

He was a seriously high quality batsman vs pace. I remember in 2020 in that test series vs England, he made some 68 odd in 1st match which was such a high quality innings that Anderson looked visibly awed. He later said Babar makes you feel slow. Ricky Ponting who is a blunt pundit with a great eye knew right away in 2019 tour of Australia that Babar was technically brilliant.

But Babar ceased to grow as a batsman and infact started to decline due to complacency. His spin deficiencies became apparent in the subcontinent but he simply refused to improve. I've seen far far less technically correct batsman find a method to handle spin but Babar as if didn't even make an effort.

His white ball batting too became stale and outdated and has now reached a point where he is no longer a dependable bat and frankly, a nothing player currently.

Babar needs to dedicate himself completely to his craft ie. batting and have a Joe "50" Root like resurgence. The challenge though is tests should be Babar's best format and we neither play enough tests nor are any good at it. So it looks bleak from here on too.
 
Well number of matches Babar is playing, it seems that he will hardly get to 30 centuries by the end of his career.
 
O
25 out of 50 centuries came against SL, Windies, BD, and Zimbabwe. Wow!

If Tendulkar, Anwar, Jayasuriya etc. played so many games against weak sides, they probably would've scored 50-60 centuries too.
Virat does not have a bogey team in ODIs. His average is high against all opposition he plays against, where ever he plays them. His lowest average is against England which is 42 (He averages 31 against Netherlands but the sample size is low). His lowest average in a country is SL which is 49. So his ODI record is airtight. He hasn't filled his boots against certain sides and failed against the others and that too in 279 innings, which is a phenomenal record.
 
25 out of 50 centuries came against SL, Windies, BD, and Zimbabwe. Wow!

If Tendulkar, Anwar, Jayasuriya etc. played so many games against weak sides, they probably would've scored 50-60 centuries too.
Virat played his first match against Srilanka way back in 2008. Let us not forget Srilanka was world cup finalists 2007 and 2011. They were also world no.3 ranked side in 2011. Tendulkar also played against those sides alongwith Kohli. Do not combine them with BD/Windies and ZImbabwe. Even Windies was okay in patches
 
Virat played his first match against Srilanka way back in 2008. Let us not forget Srilanka was world cup finalists 2007 and 2011. They were also world no.3 ranked side in 2011. Tendulkar also played against those sides alongwith Kohli. Do not combine them with BD/Windies and ZImbabwe. Even Windies was okay in patches

Many of Kohli's centuries against SL came after retirements of key SL players. Check: https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/e...re;template=results;type=batting;view=innings.
 
Many of Kohli's centuries against SL came after retirements of key SL players. Check: https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/e...re;template=results;type=batting;view=innings.
He scored 3 back to back centuries against Srilanka in 2012 total of 4 centuries in that year A century in 2009. That is 5 centuries out of 10. Malinga was the key player. Kohli destroyed him at Hobart. In 2012 they had Herath, Malinga, Kulasekara, Matthews, Perera. Pretty much the same team that played world cup which had Murali.
 
Kohli and Tendulkar played 10 ODIs against SL

Kohli
10 innings 624 runs 79.00 avge 94.97 SR 3 centuries 3 fifites
Tendulkar
10 innings 406 runs 40.60 avge 94.63 SR 1 century 1 fifty

Tendulkar played during a tougher period. Guys like Tendulkar, Anwar, Jayasuriya, Mark Waugh etc. would've probably feasted if they were playing now.
 
Tendulkar played during a tougher period. Guys like Tendulkar, Anwar, Jayasuriya, Mark Waugh etc. would've probably feasted if they were playing now.
I don't compare them. But don't dilute Kohli's 100s by saying it is only against "Srilanka". There was one time Mendis had wood over entire Indian line up. Kohli played him superbly . Same way if you talk about Kohli vs Ajmal, Kohli was better than Sachin. Kohli vs Malinga, Kohli was one of the best.
 
Tendulkar played during a tougher period. Guys like Tendulkar, Anwar, Jayasuriya, Mark Waugh etc. would've probably feasted if they were playing now.
By the way those 10 matches were the matches where both Kohli and Tendulkar played together against Srilanka. Kohli totally outperformed Tendulkar in those 10 matches.
 
By the way those 10 matches were the matches where both Kohli and Tendulkar played together against Srilanka. Kohli totally outperformed Tendulkar in those 10 matches.

Tendulkar was almost finished by then. Kohli was a hungry youngster. Not right to compare them at that period (2008-2013).
 
25 out of 50 centuries came against SL, Windies, BD, and Zimbabwe. Wow!

If Tendulkar, Anwar, Jayasuriya etc. played so many games against weak sides, they probably would've scored 50-60 centuries too.
Anwar shouldn't even be discussed in this category. That guy barely has 20 hundreds. He is similar to Yuvraj Singh. That's actually not that good considering Yuvraj plays in the middle order and Anwar was an opener.

Sachin, Jayasuriya, Ponting..each and every one of those feasted on lower skilled teams like Sri Lanka, Windies, BD, Zim and Pak. I consider teams as top tier if they are contenders to Semis in world cups and are consistent against good teams and routinely play big tours. That would be India, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and England. Kohli has great record against these teams.

The records against the lower skilled, inconsistent teams are just Stat fillers. It's not his fault though. He avoids minnows like Nepal and even Tours to BD etc routinely. But sometimes you have no choice to play these low skilled, inconsistent teams like in this world cup And the asia cup that happened earlier. And if he scores, it isn't good news because people like you will think it's a negative. But he can't not score either because he's a team man and a champion that will always give his best for his team. So it's catch 22 but I'm sure he isn't losing sleep over it and neither are his fans.
 
Wish I shared the same positivity about Pakistan players as OP and other Indian posters seem to have
 
Back
Top