Babar Azam

Mohammad Babar Azam is a Pakistani international cricketer and a former captain of the Pakistan national team in all three formats, born in Lahore on 15 October 1994. A right-handed top-order batter known for classical technique and timing, he was a member of the Pakistan team that won the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy and captains Peshawar Zalmi in the Pakistan Super League. ^{1 2 3}

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 and his mother is a housewife; he is the eldest of three siblings. His older first cousins 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 career there, sought guidance from Rana Sadiq, his first coach, and went on to captain the Pakistan under-19 side at the 2012 Under-19 World Cup. ¹

He made his ODI debut on 31 May 2015 against Zimbabwe, scoring 54 off 60 balls, and his T20I debut on 7 September 2016 against England. In the 2016 home series against the West Indies he scored his maiden international century (120), a second century (123) and a third consecutive century (117), becoming the only batsman to score 350 or more runs in a three-match ODI series (360). He made his Test debut on 13 October 2016 against the West Indies in Dubai and scored 69 in his first innings, the first player to score a fifty on Test debut in a day/night Test. In January 2017 he became, at the time, the joint-fastest player and the fastest for Pakistan to 1,000 ODI runs, in his 21st innings. ¹

He was in the Pakistan team that won the 2017 Champions Trophy, scoring 46 in the final against India. At the 2019 World Cup he became the fastest Pakistani, in terms of innings, to 3,000 ODI runs (68), scored his 10th ODI century (101 not out) against New Zealand, and broke Javed Miandad's record for the most runs by a Pakistani in a single World Cup edition, with 474 runs in 8 innings. ¹

He was named vice-captain in ODIs and T20Is in 2019 and T20I captain in October 2019, went on to captain Pakistan in all three formats, and led them to the final of the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia. He stepped down from the all-format captaincy after the 2023 ODI World Cup, as the sources record, and remained a senior batter. He won the ICC Men's ODI Cricketer of the Year award in 2021 and 2022 — the only Pakistani to win it — and reached number one in the ICC ODI and T20I batting rankings. As the article records in October 2026, his career stood at 66 Tests, 144 ODIs and 145 T20 Internationals; he is a still-active player and these totals change with every match. ^{1 2}

In the Pakistan Super League he played for Islamabad United and Karachi Kings before captaining Peshawar Zalmi from 2023, and overseas he played for Somerset in England and in other league competitions. ¹

His public significance lies in his standing among the best batters of his generation worldwide, his fixture at the top of the ICC rankings through the early 2020s, and his captaincy of Pakistan in all three formats in his twenties. ¹

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