Truthfully speaking, there’s always something extra special when an Indian cricketer recieves massive praise from none other than his Pakistani counterpart. But again, that’s the incomplete picture; it’s true even when it is the other way around- isn’t it?
No Einstein theory needed to understand this and one certainly doesn’t need Elon Musk-esque IQ to understand this.
Two countries that, at least, on the cricket field, seem bitter and eager rivals of one other don’t always have that sight where praise from one side of the border reaches a cricketer (or is directed at a cricketer) belonging to the other side.
Not that such phenomenon has never been seen or heard before; in the past, legends like Pakistan’s Abdul Qadir lavished effusive praise on Sachin Tendulkar. The duo locked horns way back in the day when the ‘little master’ wasn’t out of his teens yet.
Similarly, there’ve been several occasions where Pakistani Rawalpindi Express called Dravid’s defences hard to breach. Likewise, from the Indian contingent, Tendulkar and Sehwag have often respected and regarded the bowling mastery of none other than Wasim Akram, regarded as the true ‘Sultan of Swing!’
But cut to this part of the 21st century and what do we see: there’s a bit of a mutual admiration society between the likes of Virat Kohli and Babar Azam, two of the greatest current modern day batters.
But praise for Babar Azam isn’t only limited to what a certain Kohli says; his Indian teammate Dinesh Karthik too has had a few interesting things to say about the dogged right handed batsman whose craft seems to be in the classical mould.
So the question is, what did Dinesh Karthik say about Babar Azam? As a matter of fact, before we dwell into the details, what’s important to note is that DK, as the famous RCB bat is notedly called, actually made a prediction with regards to the fluent Pakistan batsman.
Here’s what you need to know:
Babar Azam, as per DK, can reach the status of the #1 batsman in all three formats of the game!”
As a matter of fact, the ICC cricket website, had the following observations to note about Babar Azam, as maintained by Dinesh Karthik:
“One-hundred per cent (he is capable of achieving that),” Karthik told Sanjana Ganesan on The ICC Review. “He is a high-quality player who is at the peak of his batting prowess and he has got some Test matches coming up. He has been phenomenal in all three formats of the game and he has done well in different batting positions too. I wish him all the best and think he has the potential. He has got all the following of Pakistan helping him in abundance to go on and do special things for his country.”
That being said, there were also some observations pertaining to Babar Azam’s batting craft that Karthik noted that he duly added:
“Karthik said he had noticed subtle changes that Babar had made to his batting technique in recent years that has helped him become a better player, and that his timing of the ball is now on par with all modern-day batters.
“The two things that struck me when I watched him bat is his balance and his striking point when he plays a ball,” Karthik explained.