Pakistan skipper Babar Azam is regarded as one of the most technically proficient batsmen in modern-day cricket and his number one rank in the ICC ODI rankings is a testament to his exceptional talent.
Notably, Azam’s cover drive is considered to be one of the best in international cricket, and many pundits and fans reckon that the Pakistan batsman is one of the finest drivers of the cricket ball.
Recently, Babar revealed the names of the cricketers whose cover drives he loves the most. However, the 26-year-old batsman left Team India skipper Virat Kohli out of the list despite the fact that fans constantly draw comparisons between the two and their orthodox style of playing the cover shot.
Babar said that he loves New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson’s cover drive shot and added that he enjoyed watching the cover drive of former England cricketer Ian Bell among old players.
“I really like Ian Bell’s cover drive, it was very smooth and it looked like someone was playing it in slow motion. Kane Williamson plays the cover drive really well because he plays it really late and plays it very close to his body,” said Azam in an interview with Cricwick.
“My cover drive is natural but I have honed it. I have struggled on my cover drive as well and some people used to say don’t play it too early into the innings but I worked on it and I try to hold myself back (from playing cover drive) early in the innings but that’s not the case in T20 where there is not much time and you have to play with the flow. In One-Day and Test cricket, I play my shots after taking some time,” he added.
