Biography of Babar Azam

Biography of Babar Azam:

Babar Azam, Pakistan Cricketer is a right-handed batsman and a right-arm off-break bowler. He plays as an opening batsman. His hometown is Lahore, Punjab.

Family

Babar Azam’s father name is Azam Siddique. He is cousin of famous Pakistan wicket-keeper, Kamran Akmal. Adnan Akmal and Umar Akmal are also his cousins. He has a brother named Safeer Azam.

Career

Babar Azam has played for different teams in domestic as well as international cricket. He started playing professional cricket when he was only 13 years old.

Domestic Career

In 2020, Babar Azam began his first – class career and played for Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited. On 10 December 2010, Babar Azam made his First-Class debut while playing for 2010 Qaid e Azam Trophy against National Bank Limited. He smashed 54 runs off 114 balls and the match ended in a draw.

He smashed a fifty in his List A debut at Multan in the Royal Bank of Scotland Cup and given vital contribution to take his team towards victory. On 1 December 2012, he played his first T20 match for Lahore Eagles against Hyderabad Hawks in the Faysal Bank T20 Cup.

ODI Career

On 31 May 2015, Babar made his first international against a relatively weaker squad of Zimbabwe at Lahore and smashed 54 runs.

In just 21 innings, he completed his 1000 runs and become the fastest Pakistani batsman to complete 2000 and 3000 runs. In 2017 ICC Champions Trophy, he smashed 46 runs and given a vital contribution to his team to achieve victory.

Test Career

On 13 October 2016, Babar Azam made his Test debut against West Indies. He smashed 69 runs in the first innings and 21 runs in the second innings and helped his team to achieve victory by 56 runs. He became one of the few players, who have made debut in a Day/Night Test match.

He has performed brilliantly and scored 397 runs in the last 5 innings. In 2019, he became highest scorer in the longest format of the game for Pakistan.

T20I Career

Babar Azam’s performance was excellent in One Day Internationals so on 7 September 2016 he got the opportunity to play in the T20I match against England. Babar smashed an unbeaten 15 runs and Pakistan achieved victory by 9 wickets.

Babar Azam was proved to be a consistent player in his batting in the shortest format of the game. So far, he has completed his 12 half-centuries with a highest score of 97 runs. His batting average is above 50 and this has made him one of the best T20I batsmen in the World.

Club Career

Babar Azam has played for many cricket clubs in franchise tournaments. In Pakistan Super League, he plays for Karachi Kings and Somerset in the English County Cricket. He has also played for Sylhet Sixers and Rangpur Riders in Bangladesh Premier League.

In 2017, he has played for Guyana Amazon Warriors Caribbean Premier League. In 2016 he played   for Islamabad United in Pakistan Super League.

Captaincy

Babar Azam has become the captain of Pakistani T20I team. He has been the captain of the team in one match but had unfavorable result. He was the captain of U19 team in 21 matches and registered victory in 13 of them. In 2018 and 2019 season, he has also been the captain of home team of Central Punjab in the National T20 Championship.

Records

Babar Azam has shown his brilliant performance and registered a number of records:

• He became the second-fastest Pakistani batsman to complete his 1000 runs in ODI cricket. He achieved the feat in 21 innings.
• He became fastest Pakistani batsman to complete his 2000 runs in ODI cricket .He did so in 45 innings.
• He became the fastest batsman in Asia to complete his 3000 runs in ODI cricket. He reached the milestone in 68 innings.
• He made the record of scoring the highest runs in his first 25 innings. He smashed 1306 runs in first 25 innings of his career.
• He is the only cricketer, who scores 5 consecutive hundreds in a single country.
• He became the fastest batsman to score 7 ODI hundreds. He did so in 33 innings.
• He became the fastest batsman to complete 1000 runs in T20 Internationals. He did so in 26 innings.
• He has smashed highest number of runs for Pakistan in a single World Cup .He smashed 474 runs in 2019 World Cup.
• He became the top scorer for Pakistan in ODIs in 2016, 2017 and 2019.
• He became the highest scorer scorer for Pakistan in 2018 and 2019.
• He became the fastest player to hit 13 centuries. He achieved the feat in 76 innings.

Awards and Accolades

Babar Azam has shown extraordinary performance in the recent past years for Pakistan. His name was nominated in the ICC World XI of 2017. He has played for PCB twice in a row. In 2017, he received the award by PCB. In 2018; he received the same award for his excellent performance in T20 Internationals also.