New Delhi: Star Pakistan batter Babar Azam has been going through a lean patch since the start of 2024. He was sidelined from the Pakistan squad for the remainder of England Test series after the first match. The flamboyant player is currently walking on a rough road and has hardly seen any patch like this in his career before. Former Australia cricketer Ricky Ponting wants Babar to take a leaf out of Virat Kohli’s notebook and is asking him to follow the same path which worked wonders for Kohli.
I think Virat was on record saying this – that little bit of a break that he had, he took himself away from the game for a while to freshen up and sort out some things that he needed to sort out,” Ponting recalled during ICC review. “You know, when you look at (Babar’s) numbers, it’s been a bit like the stuff that we were talking about with Virat (Kohli) earlier on,” Ponting added.
“This might be exactly what Babar needs. Maybe Babar needs to get away for a while and stop trying too hard. Lock the kit bag away for a while, and think about something else and then hopefully come back recharged, because we know at his best he’s as good as anyone going around. Hopefully we get to see that in the back half of his career again,” Ponting emphasised.
Kohli’s revival
After Kohli took a break from international cricket, he returned to the team and although India didn’t make it to the final stages of the Asia Cup 2022, Kohli scored his first T20I century. He was running short on runs and there were 1020 days between Kohli’s ton against Afghanistan and his Test ton against Sri Lanka in November 2019.
Even Babar had provided support to Kohli during his out of form patch, taking to the social media platform “X” (formerly Twitter) and make a post. He captioned it, “This too shall pass. Stay strong. Virat Kohli.” The post was lauded by the cricket pundits who called it true sportsmanship while hardcore Kohli fans criticised Babar for the post, insisting that Kohli is superior than Babar and that he doesn’t need any support from him.
Thank you. Keep shining and rising. Wish you all the best 👏
— Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) July 16, 2022
“It was an accumulation of a lot of things. As I said, when I came back into the team, the team’s been really open and welcoming and helpful, giving me space to work on my game. I know there was a lot of stuff going on on the outside but they really kept my perspective right,” Kohli had said at the time. Babar’s Test average since 2023 has been 20.3.
Ricky Ponting has suggested Babar Azam to take the route of Virat Kohli with respect to regaining his form in cricket. It took Kohli more than 1000 days to strike the right chords on the field, a few years back. Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
