Gautam Gambhir, the former Indian opening batsman, has recently expressed his high regard for Pakistani cricketer Babar Azam, predicting him to become Pakistan's greatest batter by the end of his career. This statement comes in the wake of Babar stepping down from his captaincy roles across all formats following Pakistan's disappointing performance in the ODI World Cup hosted in India.
In a conversation with Sportskeeda, Gambhir praised Babar's exceptional batting skills, suggesting that stepping down from captaincy might unlock even greater potential in him. He believes that Babar, already known for his high-quality batting, might ascend to a new level of excellence now that he is relieved of the leadership burden.
"It's an individual choice of players to leave or accept captaincy. Babar Azam is still a top quality batter for me. We might get to see the best of Babar Azam now. In Pakistan, all the blame as well as the appreciation only goes to the captain. It happens to an extent in India as well, but not to the level that it happens in Pakistan," said Gambhir.
Shan Masood has been appointed as the new Test captain for Pakistan, with Shaheen Shah Afridi taking the helm for the white-ball formats. Gambhir's admiration for Babar is backed by the latter's impressive statistics: with 3772 runs in 49 Tests, 5729 runs in 117 ODIs, and 3485 runs in 104 T20Is, Babar has consistently proven his mettle on the international stage.
"There were never question marks over Babar Azam's batting. The question marks were over his captaincy. Now that he has left it, you will see Babar reaching a different level as a batter. Even today, he is one of Pakistan's top batters. When Babar Azam ends his career, he will be Pakistan's greatest batter. He is still young and can play for another 10 years as a batter. He himself might not know what he can achieve," Gambhir added.
Babar is currently participating in the Test series in Australia, where Pakistan is looking to clinch their first-ever Test series victory on Australian soil under Masood's captaincy. The first match of this highly anticipated series is being held at the Optus Stadium in Perth.
With Babar's prolific run-scoring ability and Gambhir's endorsement of his talent, the cricket world is keenly watching to see if Babar will indeed elevate his game post-captaincy and solidify his legacy as one of Pakistan's all-time greats.
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