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India and Pakistan are the two countries where cricket gets so much love. The fans worship cricketers like gods in both countries. There have been so many legends of the game born in these two countries. Sachin Tendulkar, Wasim Akram, Shoaib Akhtar, Virender Sehwag, and so many others. But as any two team's fans do, there is always a comparison going on between the players of both countries.
The latest debate in every corner is who is better between Virat Kohli and Babar Azam, Shaheen Afridi or Jasprit Bumrah? Everyone has their own set of opinions and facts to back them. Former Pakistan pacer Aqib Javed also has his. The Lahore Qalandars' coach in the Pakistan Super League took part in this long-running debate and drew a comparison between a few India and Pakistan players.
And he rated his country's players higher than their Indian counterparts. While he reckoned Babar Azam is ahead of Virat Kohli, Javed called Shaheen Afridi way better than Jasprit Bumrah. He also rated Pakistan's wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan higher than Rishabh Pant.
For the Babar vs Kohli debate, Aqib Javed cited both players' current performances across formats. While he feels that Azam has been conquering across formats, Kohli is going through a rough patch. “Now I think Babar is ahead. He [Kohli] had his peak but now going down. But Babar, on the other hand, is going up,” the 49-year-old was quoted by Cricket Pakistan.
Shaheen has more capacity than Bumrah: Javed
The former Pakistan cricketer then shed light on who is better between Shaheen Afridi and Bumrah. He reckoned Afridi is better as he has quickly risen to ranks and also has better capacity than Bumrah. “I now think that Shaheen is better than Bumrah because when Shaheen came into the international circuit Bumrah had already established himself and the critics used to say that Bumrah is doing well in Tests, T20Is, and so but now Shaheen has proved he is even better and has more capacity than Bumrah,” he added.
Between Pant and RIzwan, Javed reckoned the latter is more responsible player and that gives him an edge over Pant. “Rizwan is better than Pant these days. There is no doubt that Pant is an extremely skillful player but the way Rizwan takes the responsibility, Pant is well behind him," he opined.