Tom Moody waxed lyrical 'special' Babar Azam, compares against Virat Kohli

Australia’s former cricketer Tom Moody has waxed lyrical about "special" Babar Azam whose style he compared with Virat Kohli and tipped to become one of the best batsmen of the decade that just began.

Moody, while speaking in The Pitch Side Experts Podcast, predicted that Azam’s stellar form would eventually see him rank among batting greats.

"He [Babar Azam] has emerged over the last year or so into something that is going to be so special. We talked about how Virat Kohli is so good on the eye as a batsman. If you think Virat Kohli is good to watch, have a look at Babar Azam bat. My gosh, he is something special,” said Moody.

“I think in the next five to ten years, he will definitely be in your top five [batsmen of the decade] without a question.”

Moody, however, did not include Azam among his top batsmen of the last decade, saying that his body of work has started to take shape too recently.

"Even though he has played 26 matches in half of those matches he was not considered even part of the main batting line-up for Pakistan. He was the after-thought down the order," the Australian said.

"I think at the moment, it is very hard to justify him at that position given his statistics. Away from home he is only averaging 37 and at home he is averaging 67. But we have to consider that he has hardly played away from home and a lot of those games away were during the early part of his career."