Not Babar Azam Or Steve Smith! Ex-PAK Skipper Picks 34-Year-Old As the Best Batter In the World Across Formats

The Greatest of All Time (GOAT), best player across all formats, legend debates have become rather normal in the last few years. With ODIs, T20Is and Test matches pitted against each other regularly, the debate regarding players who have done well across formats have caught fire the most. Joe Root, Steve Smith, Kane Williamson and Virat Kohli, the fab four was named such because all the batters were doing exceptionally well in all three formats. However, in the last few years, a couple of batters have become just one-format players while the others have lost form in one or two but Kohli is still tipped by many to take the tag of the best batter, despite his poor returns in Test cricket in the last couple of years.

Former Pakistan skipper Misbah-ul-Haq too reckoned that across formats, only Kohli deserves that tag. Even though Babar Azam has emerged as the top contender to replace one of the original members of the fab four with consistently good performances, Misbah chose to ignore his compatriot and Steve Smith as well, who caught many off guard with his twin centuries in Big Bash League 2022-23.

"See there are several players, you can't name one. If you ask about different formats, then the names are also different but if we look at just one player across all formats, then Virat Kohli tops the list. His performances and achievements are more than any other player if we combine all three formats," Misbah told News24.

However, Misbah did pick Babar as one of the future superstars saying that amongst the yunger crop, he is heads and shoulders above anyone.

"And in newer players, you can't go beyond Babar Azam," former Pakistan skipper Misbah said. "The way Babar has emerged in the last 2-3 years, world no. 1, world no. 2, top five in Test cricket too and has performed everywhere. The way he is performing, I think he is going to be a superstar in the future and will keep on improving."

Babar was always a special performer in white-ball cricket but his returns in Test cricket, especially in 2022 were his best as he amassed 1184 runs including four centuries and 7 fifties in nine games.