We’ve all been there when writing about cricket. A slow day at the Test, acres of space to fill, a silky cameo like the one played by Pakistan’s Babar Azam and suddenly we are witnessing the next best thing to Don Bradman.
It is like a lemming rush driven in part by the assessment of experts like Michael Vaughan and Shane Warne. A sound bite from one of them, suggesting Babar’s greatness however conditional, is all it needs for the hyperbole to go into overdrive.
Yet, just as everyone is reading your sage words of wisdom the following morning it all comes crashing down as Babar, perhaps believing the previous day’s hype himself, plays a big shot at the sixth ball of the day and is caught at slip having not added to his overnight score of 69.
Like most of us, Vaughan is sometimes guilty of overstatement but probably not on this occasion. He knows his stuff about batting and if he says Babar will establish himself among the other great batsmen of the current era – Virat Kohli, Steve Smith, Kane Williamson and Joe Root – before the series is out, it is worth taking heed.
Actually, Vaughan went as far as to say he thought Babar, 25, would soon be in the top three, high praise from someone who played with Root’s dad given that he wouldn’t want to wind him up unnecessarily.
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