The former Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin didn’t pick Virat Kohli as his current favourite player when he was asked to pick one by a fan during a Q&A session on Twitter. Azharuddin picked the former Australian captain Steve Smith as his favourite of the current generation.
Generally, Virat Kohli is considered the best all-format batsman of this generation, but when it comes solely to test cricket, many people believe that Steve Smith is probably the best test batsman of this generation.
And that reflects in Smith’s numbers as well, as he averages over 60 in test cricket and has already been named the test cricketer of the decade by ICC, while Virat Kohli was named as the ODI player of the decade.
Smith’s excellence in test cricket might have made Azharuddin pick him over Virat Kohli
Most of the past players, when they have to pick a favourite player or the player they rate, they generally tilt towards the player who has done well in the longest format of the game, that is test cricket. So that might have been the reason why Azharuddin picked Steve Smith over Kohli.
Steve Smith was suspended for a year due to ball-tampering scandal which unfolded in South Africa in 2018 and many people thought that the gap might affect his game, particularly in test cricket, but the right-hander returned with the same fluency and piled on 700 runs in his very first test series on his comeback in England.
Steve Smith
— Mohammed Azharuddin (@azharflicks) October 12, 2021
Azharuddin himself was also a fabulous test batsman, but his test career came to a premature end as his name surfaced in match-fixing scandals, and he couldn’t play any further for India.
Azharuddin is, however, now involved in the cricket administration and is now the chairman of the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA). He is also a part of the working group formed by BCCI which decides on the matters related to domestic cricket.
