The Southpaw batter of Pakistan Salman Butt drew an analysis between the current Indian captain Rohit Sharma along with his counterpart Babar Azam and the explosive opener of Pakistan Mohammad Rizwan. He glorified Rohit Sharma as a highly Elite player compared to Babar Azam and Rizwan. Even though Rohit Sharma’s performance is not up to the mark right now; however, he is an all-rounder in all three forms of cricket. His last international century came against England in 2021, where he toiled hard in tough conditions in the Oval test match. This eventually gave him a permanent place in the Indian test team.
On the other hand, Babar Azam is currently running in a golden form of his career, where he is smashing centuries in all three formats of the game. In the recently concluded test series against Australia, Babar Azam registered his test career best knock of 196(425). He was declared as the captain of Pakistan cricket team in the year 2020. After he became the leader, his batting form also improved. He continues to make excellent progress since then.
Apart from this, Mohammed Rizwan has a slightly different skill set compared to Rohit Sharma and Babar Azam. His scoring area on the field usually stays on the leg side, which makes him more flamboyant in the limited overs format of the game. Rizwan is technically not so compact but when it comes to improvisation of boundaries, then he looks ahead of Babar and Rohit. He is the highest run scorer for Pakistan in the T20 International Cricket since the past 2 years.
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But the kind of analysis which Salman Butt put forth is more of a comparison in numbers instead of a sharp look at the gameplay and ability of scoring runs in all three formats. On his YouTube channel, Butt usually does superficial assessment of players as per his former Pak cricketers, which lowers the authenticity of his opinion. Mohammed Rizwan, Babar Azam and Rohit Sharma are three completely different players. So, they simply cannot be compared on the basis of their career numbers since there debut.
Salman Butt used to give his opinion on regular cricket activities in the ambit of world cricket and recently in the chat with former Pakistan cricketer on his own YouTube channel he drew this comparison. Butt said, “Unka (Rohit) comparison nahi banta (with Babar and Rizwan). With his set of skills, Rohit ki fitness Kohli se aadhi bhi ho, toh usse zyada destructive player nahi hai. Fir uska aur sirf AB de Villiers ka match reh jaata hai, beechme koi player nahi aata. Agar woh (Rohit) bohot fit hotey Kohli ki tarah toh pata nahi woh kya kartey. (Rohit can’t be compared with Babar and Rizwan. With his set of skills, Rohit would be the most destructive player if his fitness levels were half as good as Kohli’s. Only AB de Villiers comes close to him)”.
“I’ve been at many press conferences and when you lose, such questions will be asked. It is normal. But as far as the team is concerned you can go in [the dressing room] and see, all the boys are relaxed and chilled. We need to have such an atmosphere whether you win or lose”, he concluded.
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