Mohammad Babar Azam (Urdu, Punjabi: محمد بابر اعظم; pronounced [muhamməd babəɾ azəm]; born 15 October 1994) is a Pakistani international cricketer and a former captain of the Pakistan national team in all three formats of the game. A right-handed top-order batter, he captains Peshawar Zalmi in the Pakistan Super League. Azam was a member of the Pakistan team that won the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy.
Babar Azam was born on 15 October 1994 into a family from the Walled City of Lahore. His father Mohammad Azam Siddiqui owned a small watch repair shop while his mother is a housewife. He is the eldest of three siblings Safeer Azam, Faisal Azam and Fariya Azam. His older first cousins (through his elder paternal uncle) Kamran and Umar Akmal were the reason he was attracted to cricket, and their stories inspired him to take up cricket as his profession. He had been a ball boy at Gaddafi Stadium before joining a cricket academy and starting his domestic cricket career there.
He sought guidance from Rana Sadiq, his first coach, who taught him the fundamentals of batting. Later, he went on to be a part of the Pakistan under-19 setup.
On 31 May 2015, Azam was included in the Pakistan ODI squad for the home series against Zimbabwe. He made his ODI debut in the third ODI on 31 May and scored an impressive fifty scoring 54 runs off 60 balls. His impressive debut earned him a place in both Test and ODI squads selected for an away series against Sri Lanka. He was not selected to play in the Test series. During the ODI series, he only scored 37 runs in the two matches that he played. Azam was included in the squad for the away ODI series against Zimbabwe in September 2015.
He was retained in the One Day squad for the home series against England. In the first ODI of the four match series he scored 62 not out with a strike rate of 100. He had scores of 4, 22 and 51 in next three matches respectively. He finished the series with 139 runs at an average of 46.33.
In January 2016, Pakistan visited New Zealand. In the first ODI match, Azam scored 62 runs off 76 balls. Pakistan lost the match by 70 runs. He was the leading run scorer in the ODI series with 145 runs in 2 innings at an average of 72.50.
In the five-match ODI series against England in July, he batted in five games and only scored 122 runs. He made his Twenty20 International debut for Pakistan against England on 7 September. He scored an unbeaten 15 runs off 11 balls. Pakistan won the match and series.
Besides the England series, Pakistan played two match ODI series against Ireland. In the first ODI of the series, Pakistan beat Ireland by 255 runs and created record of their biggest win in terms of runs in an ODI. Azam contributed in his team's victory by scoring 29 runs. With the second and final ODI abandoned due to rain, Pakistan won the series 1–0.
Rise in shorter formats and breaking records
Azam was selected in the home series against the West Indies in 2016. In the first match of the ODI series he scored his maiden international century, scoring 120 off 131 balls and earning his first man of the Match award. In the second ODI, he scored another century, this time scoring 123 off 126 balls, and contributing to Pakistan's total of over 330 runs. In the third and final ODI of the series Azam scored a third consecutive century (117 from 106). He also set the record for most runs (360) in a three match ODI series. He became the only batsman to score 350+ runs in a three match ODI series.
He made his Test debut for Pakistan against the West Indies in Dubai on 13 October 2016 and scored 69 runs in his first innings. He was the first player to score a fifty on his Test debut through a day/night Test.
On 19 January 2017, in the third ODI against Australia, Azam became then joint-fastest player to score 1,000 runs in ODIs and then fastest for Pakistan in his 21st innings before his record was later surpassed by his compatriot Fakhar Zaman. He scored a century in the fifth ODI, which was only the second century ever scored by a Pakistani batsman in Australia after Zaheer Abbas in 1981. He also entered the top 10 batsmen's ranking in ODIs for the first time ever.
Sarfaraz Ahmed replaced Azhar Ali as Pakistan's ODI team captain against the West Indies after Azhar Ali stepped down from the captaincy after a defeat against Australia in ODI series. Azam scored an unbeaten 125 in the 2nd ODI of the three–match ODI series at Providence Stadium, Guyana. Azam along with Imad Wasim put on an unbeaten 99 runs partnership which helped Pakistan to a total of 282.
In the Champions Trophy 2017, Azam scored 46 off 52 balls in the final match against India. After a successful Champions trophy tour, ICC sent the World XI team in Pakistan where they played three T20I matches. Azam was the top runs-getter in the series, scoring 179. In the first T20I played at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore, he scored 86 playing only 52 balls, and won his first Man of the match award in T20Is, helping Pakistan win the match by 20 runs.
He had scores of 45 and 48 in the next two fixtures.
In September 2017, he had a poor Test series against Sri Lanka, where he managed to score only 39 runs across 2 Test matches. In the second ODI he became the fastest batsman to score 7th ODI century in ODIs and the first batsman in ODI history to score five consecutive centuries in one country. He had scores of 30 and 69 (not out) in next two innings while chasing.
He was the leading runs-scorer for Pakistan in 2016 in ODIs and T20Is with 872 and 352 runs respectively. At the 2017 PCB awards, he was awarded Pakistan's ODI Player of the year. He was also listed in 2017's ICC World ODI XI for the first time ever.
Pakistan's first assignment in 2018 was tour to New Zealand. Azam was an automatic selection in the ODI team. However he could score only 0, 10, 8, 3, 10 across 5 innings, scoring only 31 runs at an average of 6.2 as Pakistan were whitewashed 5–0, his worst series until date. But performed well in the T20I series and contributed in team's winning the series 2–1. Azam was the leading run scorer with 109 runs. He had scores of 41, 50* and 18 in these T20Is. He became the no.1 T20I batsmen, the second to reach the feat after Misbah-ul-Haq, but soon slipped to no. 3 position. He regained no. 1 spot in the rankings after a successful series against West Indies, who were touring Pakistan after thirteen years. His best performance came in the second T20I where he scored an unbeaten 97 runs which won him a Man of the match award. He finished the series as leading run-getter with 165 runs at an average of 82.50 and a strike rare of 148.64, and won the man of the series. Pakistan won the series 3–0.Babar, Fakhar lead Pakistan to 3–0.