Former England skipper Nasser Hussain showered praise on Pakistan captain Babar Azam and tipped to end his career as the country’s all-time great. Azam is one of the most consistent batters in all three formats of the game and his record speaks for itself.

Azam scored 348 runs in three Test matches against England in the recently concluded series and he was his team’s leading run-getter. The flamboyant batter amassed his runs at an average of 58 and a strike rate of 68.91.

Hussain feels Babar Azam belongs to the same class of players such as Virat Kohli, Joe Root, Kane Williamson, and Steve Smith.

Nasser Hussain said while talking to Cricwick, “I think he’ll end up as Pakistan’s all-time great. Not just the runs he gets, but the way he gets his runs. In an era where some of the batting, not all of batting, is about hitting the ball hard, hitting the ball a long way, I look at Root and Azam as multi-format players.

The current broadcaster hailed Babar Azam for his ability to time the ball to perfection.

“I look at Kohli, Smith, Labuschagne, I still look at people who could stroke a cricket. When they play a shot you sit there and go WOW, whether it be Babar’s cover-drive, or Root slog sweep, or even a Labuschagne forward defense. Call me boring but I’m an old school of stroking a cricket ball,” Hussain added.

On the other hand, Hussain is hopeful that the fans will be a bit easy on Babar Azam as he is currently carrying the team on his shoulders.

“So I love watching Babar play, and he’s under immense pressure. He’s carrying a batting line-up, in the World T20 I think it was the first I’ve ever since Babar looked out of nick. I think he’ll end up in all-time great, I wish people will cut him a little bit of slack because he’ll go through periods when he doesn’t get runs and in this part of the world, you get absolutely vilified.”

Babar Azam will lead Pakistan in the upcoming two-match Test series against New Zealand.