Pakistani cricketer Fakhar Zaman recently stirred debate among cricket fans by ranking England’s Joe Root and Pakistan’s Babar Azam as the top two Test batters, leaving out Indian batting legend Virat Kohli and New Zealand’s Kane Williamson. Fakhar made these selections during an appearance on former cricketer Basit Ali’s YouTube channel, where he was asked to rate players in the Test format.
During the discussion, Basit Ali asked Fakhar to rank four prominent Test batters—Joe Root, Virat Kohli, Babar Azam, and Kane Williamson—in order of merit. However, Fakhar declined to assign rankings for the third and fourth spots, opting instead to pick only the top two.
“I will select only the first two, Joe Root first and then Babar Azam,” Fakhar said, highlighting Root’s consistency and Babar’s growing stature in Test cricket.
This decision sparked reactions, as Kohli’s Test records significantly outweigh Babar’s. To date, Kohli has accumulated 9,166 runs in 121 matches at an average of 47.49, including 30 centuries and 31 half-centuries. In comparison, Babar has scored 3,997 runs in 50 Tests at an average of 43.92, with nine centuries and 26 fifties.
In addition to ranking batters, Fakhar was also asked to choose the top two pacers from a list of four—Shaheen Shah Afridi, Jasprit Bumrah, Naseem Shah, and Mohammed Shami. Without hesitation, Fakhar named Pakistan’s Shaheen Afridi and India’s Jasprit Bumrah as the best.
“Top two, Shaheen and Bumrah,” he said, acknowledging the impact both pacers have had in international cricket.