Out-of-favour Pakistan batter Khurram Manzoor made a bold claim saying that he has a better conversion rate in One-Day cricket than Virat Kohli. While he emphasised that he does not want to compare himself with Kohli who has 46 ODI hundreds, he called himself no.1 in the format.
“I am not comparing myself with Virat Kohli. Fact is, in 50-overs cricket, whoever is there in the top 10, I am the world no.1, after me stands Kohli. My conversion rate in List A cricket is better than him. He scores a century every six innings. I score a century in every 5.68 innings. And based on my average of 53, over the last 10 years, I am ranked fifth in the world in List A cricket,” Manzoor said in a conversation with Nadir Ali.
The opener, who made his ODI debut in the same year as Kohli, scored a half-century against Zimbabwe in his first outing. He played his last ODI against Sri Lanka in 2009 when he got out on a single-digit score and Pakistan got all out for 75.
The 36-year-old represented Pakistan in just seven ODIs and ascored 236 runs at an average of 33.71 including three half-centuries. He played three T20Is and managed to score just 11 runs. He played 16 Tests as well and scored 817 runs at an average of 28.17 including one century and seven half-centuries.
While Manzoor was inconsistent in the international arena, he was a giant in List A cricket. He has scored 7,922 runs from 165 List A innings at an average of 53.52 including 27 centuries and 39 half-centuries. He also has 12,167 First Class runs to his name including 33 centuries.
Manzoor made his last appearance in List A cricket in March 2022 whereas last First Class appearance was in November 2022.
While Kohli had troubled converting good starts into big scores for three years, he has been in stupendous form in limited-overs cricket of late. The 34-year-old scored has scored two ODI centuries in 2023 already and has sights on legendary Indian batter Sachin Tendulkar’s record of most centuries in ODIs.
