Babar has almost overtaken Kohli as 'ultimate uber 50-over batter', says Bishop

Former West Indies pacer Ian Bishop has opined that Pakistan skipper and No.1 ranked ODI batter Babar Azam has almost overtaken Virat Kohli as the 'ultimate uber 50-over batter' in the game.

The renowned commentator said that the 27-year-old is on the road to greatness especially in the 50-overs format where he averages close to 60 with 17 hundreds to his name.

"Babar Azam is on the road to greatness, And I want to be clear when I say on the road to it in white-ball cricket at least and certainly 50-overs cricket," Bishop told Cricwick.

"Because I don't use the term great loosely. I think I have discussed this with a couple of my colleagues 24 hours ago, it has to be a bigger sample size but average as it stands now, on the cusp of 60 with 17 ODI hundreds.

"He has almost overtaken his next door neighbour the great Virat Kohli in terms of the ultimate uber 50-over batsman," he added.

Bishop further added that Azam's batting in Test cricket still has room for improvement and is a work in progress. He concluded by saying that he hopes the Pakistani captain will be one of the top players in red-ball cricket in the future.

"His Test cricket is a work in progress. I'm surprised he hasn't taken to Test cricket numbers a lot earlier. He's starting to get better at it. Technically, he's superb. In future, I'm hoping he will be mentioned in the same breath in Test cricket as the top 3-4 players," said Bishop.