'I put him in same bracket as Tiger Woods, Muhammad Ali': Zimbabwe star's big statement on Kohli vs Babar Azam debate

Ever since Babar Azam rose to fame with his heroics across formats, the Pakistan captain has been compared to India's Virat Kohli. And with each passing record that Babar seems to break and looks to rise further in international cricket and establish his name among the greats of the game, the debate surrounding the better batsman between the two gets more heated. But Zimbabwe all-rounder Sikander Raza, without batting an eyelid, blurted out 'Virat' when asked to pick one between the two before he made a big statement on the former India skipper.

Raza is in the limelight after hitting two back-to-back centuries against Bangladesh in the recently-concluded ODI series. The right-handed batsman hit a match-winning 135 not out in the first ODI and played a crucial knock of 117* in the second ODI. For his terrific performance, Sikander was awarded the Player of the Series award.

Speaking to cricket enthusiast Anis Sajan on his YouTube channel, Raza hailed India's star batter as he compared Kohli with Babar, putting the 33-year-old in the same bracket as legendary Tiger Woods and Muhammad Ali.

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"Virat bhai is an all-format player. I would like to put Virat in the same bracket as Tiger Woods and Muhammad Ali, these people kind of revolutionised their sports, they thought outside the box and they tried something new which was later followed by everybody," he explained.

Anis, who is fondly known as UAE's Mr. Cricket 360 is the vice-chairman of Dubai-based Danube Group, and an acclaimed promoter of cricket in the region. He has mentored teams like Bengal Tigers and Delhi Bulls from the Abu Dhabi T10 League, and the Indian team for the Indoor Cricket World Cup.

Sikander further added, "Cricket was always about fitness and XYZ but the way Virat took that part(fitness) of the game forward for the younger generation to follow, that is commendable and people should give him enough credit for that."

When Sikander was asked what advice would he give to out-of-form Kohli, he said, " I don't think that I am experienced enough to give advice to a guy who has got close to 16-20 thousand career runs, What do I tell him? I can tell him nothing".

He further added, "People should stay silent and let the man(Virat) have peace, leave him alone and he will find his peak again".

Sikander named Australia, Pakistan and India to be the favourites to win the upcoming T20 World Cup.