Give Me Babar Azam, Virat Kohli And Nine Pieces Of Wood And I Will Win You World Cup, Says Rashid Latif

Former Pakistan player Rashid Latif said he just needs Pakistan skipper Babar Azama and senior Indian batter Virat Kohli in his team to win a World Cup title. Babar and Kohli are regarded as the greatest batters of modern-day cricket in all three formats of the game.

Babar currently holds the No.1 spot for ICC Men’s rankings in ODI and T20I formats while Kohli is positioned second in ODI rankings and 10th in the red-ball format. Babar is junior to Kohli on the international stage but has all the skills that require to join the similar ranks of the Indian batting great.

Babar Azam fastest to reach 15 ODI hundreds

Babar has shattered several records of Kohli in the recently concluded three-match ODI series against Australia. The Pakistan skipper leapfrogged Kohli, Joe Root and David Warner to complete 4000 ODI runs in 83 innings to become the second-fastest batter to reach the milestone after Hashim Amla (82 innings).

In his 83rd ODI innings, Babar also pipped Amla and Kohli to complete 15 ODI hundreds in fewer innings. Babar is also the fastest batter to score 16 ODI hundreds.

Virat Kohli fastest to 10,000 ODI runs

Kohli, however, holds the landmark of the quickest batter to reach 8000, 9000, 10,000, 11,000 & 12,000 ODI runs and that is something Babar will eye for. The two players met on the opposite sides as the captains of their teams when Pakistan defeated India by 10 wickets in the ICC T20 World Cup 2021 in October last year.

Kohli has relinquished captaincy of the Indian team from all formats earlier this year when he stepped from the Test captaincy role after defeat to South Africa 2-1 in their backyard. Babar replaced Sarfaraz Ahmed as captain of the Pakistan team in 2019 and by November 2020, he was given charge in all three formats.

Give me Babar Azam, Virat Kohli and nine pieces of wood and I will win you the World Cup: Rashid Latif

Latif used former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson’s quote to pair Babar and Kohli in a team of fringe players and still win a World Cup title.

“Give me 10 pieces of wood and Zinedine Zidane and I’ll win the Champions League,” Sir Alex had once said.

In his own version of the quote, Rashid said: “Give me Babar Azam, Virat Kohli and nine pieces of wood and I will win you the World Cup. 

Kohli is currently playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in IPL 2022 while Babar recently led Pakistan in multi-format bilateral series against Australia at home, the tour ended on April 5 with a one-off T20I match in Lahore.

Also Read: The Greatest Of This Era Are Virat Kohli, Babar Azam Even Mohammad Rizwan Has Shown Great Improvement – Saeed Ajmal