'There is no comparison': Kamran Akmal weighs in on Babar Azam vs Shubman Gill debate in Tests after West Indies loss

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'There is no comparison': Kamran Akmal weighs in on Babar Azam vs Shubman Gill debate in Tests after West Indies loss originally appeared on Cricket News. Add Cricket News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:​

• Kamran Akmal argued there is no comparison between Shubman Gill and Babar Azam.
• He blamed Pakistan's lack of a settled batting unit rather than Babar's individual returns.
• His remarks followed Pakistan's opening Test defeat to the West Indies in Tarouba.

Kamran Akmal weighs in on Babar Azam vs Shubman Gill in Tests after West Indies loss​

The perennial debate over where Babar Azam ranks among his contemporaries has flared again, this time drawn into a direct comparison with India captain Shubman Gill. The discussion gained fresh heat in the wake of Pakistan's chastening defeat to the West Indies in the first Test at Tarouba.

Former wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal, himself a cousin of Babar, waded into the conversation when confronted with a pointed statistical argument from a supporter.

The fan noted that Gill had reached eleven Test hundreds in just 41 matches, against Babar's nine centuries from a far greater number of appearances.

Rather than defend Babar's numbers directly, Akmal reframed the entire comparison around the strength of the teams surrounding each batter. His response pointed to the depth of India's line-up as the decisive factor separating the two captains.

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Akmal shifts the focus to the team​

Akmal argued that Gill's output cannot be separated from the quality of those batting alongside him. He said, "This performance comes with the players that you have in your team. Look at the big names in his team. It doesn't matter to him if Rohit Sharma leaves or Virat Kohli leaves."

He then spelt out the supporting cast he believes underpins the India captain's success. Akmal continued, "He knows Jaiswal will score 200, Pant will score 150, and KL Rahul will score 100. In our team, only one plays and the other 10 collapse." For Akmal, the conclusion followed naturally from that contrast.

He added, "So till the time we don't build a proper team, there is no comparison", pinning the gap on Pakistan's structural failings rather than any deficiency in Babar himself.


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Shubman Gill's and Babar Azam's Test stats compared​

The raw figures offer their own context to Akmal's argument, showing Gill ahead on average, strike rate and hundreds despite his far shorter career to date.

Player	Mat	Inns	Runs	HS	Ave	SR	100s	50s
Babar Azam	63	116	4562	196	43.03	54.97	9	32
Shubman Gill	41	74	2969	269	44.31	61.85	11	8

The numbers tell a story of two contrasting profiles. Gill's eleven hundreds from just 74 innings point to a superior conversion rate, turning starts into big scores where Babar has often stalled.

The Pakistani's 32 fifties against nine centuries hint at a man who reaches the platform but too rarely builds the monument.

Babar's case rests on volume and consistency across a longer haul, with 4,562 runs and an average a shade below the Indian skipper's. Yet Gill's brisker strike rate and towering 269, set against Babar's best of 196, suggest Gill is playing with greater freedom, a freedom that Akmal would argue is granted by the batters around him.

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A defence that quietly concedes the point​

There is an irony in Akmal's intervention that is hard to miss. In seeking to shield Babar from an unfavourable comparison, he effectively acknowledges that Gill has outscored his Pakistani counterpart on the key measures, resting his entire case on collective circumstance rather than individual class.

The argument is not without merit, as Test batting is shaped heavily by the security a strong order provides. Yet it also underplays Babar's own responsibility as captain and senior figure, and the timing, arriving after another away collapse, lends Akmal's words the air of a familiar Pakistani lament rather than a genuine rebuttal of Gill's rise.


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