Abhishek Sharma vs Babar Azam - comparing their stats after 17 T20Is

Abhishek Sharma is one of the fastest rising stars in world cricket. The Indian opener has made a name for himself with his explosive batting performances at the top of the order.

In the latest ICC T20I Rankings released for batters on February 5, Abhishek Sharma became the number two ranked batter. Three days before that, the youngster smashed the all-time record for the highest individual score by an Indian in T20Is with a 134-run knock against England in Mumbai.

Like Indian fans tout Abhishek Sharma as the future of Indian cricket, Pakistani fans once considered Babar Azam as their top future star when he was starting off in T20Is. Hence, in this article now, we will compare the stats of Babar and Abhishek after 17 T20Is.

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#1 Abhishek Sharma vs Babar Azam - Who has more runs after 17 T20Is?

Abhishek Sharma has represented India in 17 T20I matches so far. He has aggregated 535 runs in 16 innings. Notably, there have been three such occasions, where the left-handed batter top-scored for India in a T20I match.

On the other side, Pakistan's star batter Babar Azam has played 128 T20I matches for his country so far. To make it a fair comparison, we shall only consider Babar's stats after his first 17 appearances in the shortest format of international cricket.

Babar played his 17th T20I against New Zealand at the Bay Oval on January 28, 2018. He scored a 17-ball 18 in that game, which took his tally to 577 runs, which is 32 more than Abhishek. Hence, Babar gets the point here.

Score: Sharma 0 - 1 Azam.

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#2 Abhishek Sharma vs Babar Azam - Who has more centuries after 17 T20Is?

Scoring centuries in T20I cricket is a difficult thing because a team only gets a maximum of 120 balls in an innings. Although Abhishek has played only 17 T20Is in his career thus far, he has already managed to register two centuries. His first ton came against Zimbabwe in 2024, while his second century came in his last game against England in Mumbai.

Babar Azam scored three half-centuries in his first 17 T20I matches for Pakistan. However, the right-handed batter could never convert any of his half-tons into a century. His highest score after 17 matches was 86.

Score: Sharma 1 - 1 Azam.

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#3 Abhishek Sharma vs Babar Azam - Who has the better average + strike rate after 17 T20Is?

Strike rate + average is a crucial metric in T20Is because it highlights the overall impact a particular batter has made with his performances. Sharma's batting average is 33.44 after 17 innings. His strike rate of 193.84 is one of the best in the world. Abhishek's average + strike rate equals to 227.28.

Babar Azam averaged 48.08 after his 17th T20I. However, his strike rate of 122.51 was much lower than Abhishek. His total average + strike rate equals to 170.59. Thus, Abhishek is the clear winner here.

Final score: Sharma 2 - 1 Azam.