Babar Azam says that”It is not my role to go out and do the power hitting. My job is to play my natural game”

” Runs are runs, even if they are coming off playing cut shots or in front, but it’s not like T20 can only be played with big shots.”

Babar Azam has shown with his class, persistence, and hard work that you can achieve that milestone, you have dreamed of if you are focused on what you are doing.

Babar Azam has also proved that you always don’t have to be a big hitter of the ball to survive in shorter formats but if you are skilled and brave enough to play with the mind, you can be Worlds T20I best batsman

Early Life

Babar Azam has been born in Lahore Pakistan, on 15 October 1995 and he also began his domestic career in Lahore, He is also the cousin of Kamran Akmal, Adnan Akmal, and Umer Akmal.

Babar made his first-class debut from the Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited team in 2010 against the National Bank of Pakistan and scored a maiden first-class fifty in debut match.

He scored 53 runs on 114 balls, his innings includes 5 4’s with the strike rate of 46.49

First Class Stats

Match Innings Runs Highest Runs Average 50/100 Strike Rate First Class 61 100 3805 266 42.75 25/8 57.73

ODI Career

Babar Azam has been included in the squad against Zimbabwe in a home series, He was lucky enough to play his debut game in front of his own people in his own city Lahore, as cricket returned back home.

In a debut game, Babar Azam scored 54 runs and his innings included 4 boundaries.



Babar never looked back after making ODI debut, his bat started emitting runs in a flow, and he has reached several milestones within no time.

Here are Babar ODI’s stats



Matches Innings Runs Highest Runs Average 100/50 Strike Rate ODI 74 72 3359 125* 54.17 11/15 87.08

Babar has scored centuries against Westindies, Srilanka, Australia, and as well New Zealand



Runs Opponents Ground 125 Westindies Providence 123 Westindies Sharjah 120 Westindies Sharjah 117 Westindies Abu Dahbi 115 England Nottingham 115 Srilanka Karachi 106 Zimbabwe Bulwayo 103 Srilanka Dubai 101 New Zealand Birminghom 101 Srilanka Abu Dahbi 100 Australia Adelaide

Babar Azam ODI Records

Babar Azam join Viv Richards, Kevin Pietersen, Jonathan Trott, Quinton de Kock for scoring 3rd fastest 1000 runs in ODI in only 21 innings, While the first spot is grabbed by Pakistan, left-handed opener Batsman Fakhar Zaman who has completed fastest 1000 runs in only 18 innings, while Gordon Greenidge, Ryan ten Doeschate, Azhar Ali have completed 1000 runs in 21 innings

Babar is the second joint-fastest to score 2000 runs, He has achieved this milestone in 45 innings while and equalize with legend Pakistani cricketer Zaheer Abbass and English Batsman Kevin Peterson.



While Hashim Amla is on the first spot, He has completed the fastest 2000 runs in ODI’s in just 40 innings.

Babar Azam also holds the record 3rd quickest 3000 runs scorer in the world, while the fastest in Asia, Azam has reached the milestone in 68th innings

Babar Azam also holds a unique record to score 5 consecutive hundreds in a country



He also holds a record to be a leading runs scorer 2016,2017 and 2019 from Pakistan

Test Career

Babar Azam made his test debut against Westindies in UAE, where he scored 69 runs, and also hit 5 4’s, while in second innings Babar got out for 21 runs

Babar Azam earlier in test cricket didn’t perform as per expectation but later on, he got his form back

Babar’s Test Stats

Matches Innings Runs Highest Runs Average 50/100 Strike rate Test 26 48 1850 143 45.12 5/13 56.90

Babar Azam has scored six tons as follows

Runs Opponent Venue 143 Bangladesh Rawalpindi 127 New Zealand Brisbane 104 Australia Dubai 102 Srilanka Rawalpindi 100 Srilanka Karachi - - -

T20I Career

Babar Azam has made his T20I debut against England in Manchester, he scored 15 runs and remain not out as Pakistan won the match by 9 wickets

Babar Azam is also the captain of Pakistan T20I cricket team, Babar has also shown his class in the T20 format and became the number T20 Batsman in the world, He has shown with his class and ability to score the runs in T20 format that it is not necessary to be big hitter of the ball

T20 Stats

Matches Innings Runs Highest Runs Average 50/100 Strike Rate 38 38 1471 97 50.72 13/0 128.13

Babar also holds a record to score fastest 1000 in T20 international cricket in only 26 innings

Teams

Babar Azam has represented several teams including Guyana Amazon Warriors, Islamabad United, Karachi Kings, Pakistan A, Pakistan Under-15s, Pakistan Under-19s, Pakistan Under-23s, Rawalpindi Rams, Sui Southern Gas Corporation, Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited

Pakistan Super League

Babar Azam has been selected by Islamabad United in the first edition of Pakistan Super League, where he was bought of $25000, But unluckily he got injured during a group stage game, Injury didn’t allow him again to play the tournaments next matches,

In 2017 Babar Azam was bought by Karachi Kings owned by Salman Iqbal, He was bought for 50,000, his performance in the 2nd edition was also good where he scored 291 runs with an average of 32.33 and remain the second-highest runs scorer whereas Kamran Akmal finishes as top scorer.

In 2019, Babar Azam was retained by Karachi kings, In this session, he scored 402 runs with an average of 40.22 including 5 half-centuries and finishes as 3rd top scorer

Considering his performance in T20 cricket, Babar Azam was appointed as vice-captain of Karachi Kings

Babar Azam in Vitality Blasts

Babar Azam has not only performed in a national team but also in other teams as well in 2019, he has played from somerset, where he scored 578 runs in 13 matches with an average of 52.54 with four half-centuries and became the highest runs scorer in the tournament

Babar Azam Vs Dayle Styenn

Dayle Styenn is recognized as one of the finest fast bowlers in Cricket world when it comes to aggression, pace, swing, celebrations, he is recognized as most feared bowler in the world of cricket, He is often called as Styenn gun

Babar and Styenn got to head to head interaction in test matches where Dayle Styenn was smashed 10 times over a boundary line by Babar Azam just in 31 balls, the game does not end here but he again hit Styenn in Cape town the second innings for 5 boundaries in 29 balls

Awards

Pakistan Cricket Board named his 2017 player of the year.

He has been selected in World XI ODI squad in 2017

PCB named him as a T20I player of the year

He got again selected in ICC ODI World XI 2019

Captaincy

After Sarfraz being sacked out from a team, Babar Azam is nominated as T20I captain of Pakistan Cricket Team, While he is also nominated as vice-captain of ODI team