It wasn't a surprise to cricket fans when Babar Azam thrashed Hampshire during the T20 Vitality Blast 2019  on Friday. Babar, according to ICC, is the no. 1 batsman listed on the MRF Tyres ICC T20I Rankings. The lanky batsman from Pakistan increased his numbers to 102 in 55 balls during the match in Southhampton. Somerset won by 63 runs via the DLS method.

Somerset Cricket posted on twitter the highlights of Babar’s swift batting during the match against Hampshire. 

Babar has now an average of 42.6 and a strike-rate of 123.73 in the T20 format. He is the leading scorer with 425 runs in 8 innings, 99. He already got past his closest rival, D’Arcy Short. 

With his stellar performance, a lot of fans already compared the 24-year-old to India Team captain, Virat Kohli. But Babar said that he is not yet close to the achievements of the Indian skipper. 

 “I just focus on my batting and working on my strengths and weaknesses and have no desire to be compared with any other cricketer,’ Babar said. 

“I’m sure I speak for most cricketers when I say comparisons are only for fans and the media and us cricketers don’t really crave any comparisons or want to be compared to any current or former players as that just creates endless pressure,” he added.

Azam’s consistent performance and scoring rate earned him comparisons with Kohli. Azam is the second-fastest batsman to have 3000 ODI runs. Pakistan batting coach Grant Flower said that Azam has a really good career ahead of him. 

“I think he’ll have a really good career if he keeps his feet on the ground, which I think he will. He’s got Virat’s hunger. I think he could be at some point in the future.”