Interesting Facts about Babar Azam

Babar Azam is a Pakistani international cricketer and currently the all-format captain of the Pakistan Cricket Team. Touted as one of the most talented batsmen of all time from his country, he has earned his name among the top players currently playing the game. Azam was born on 15th October, 1994 in the walled city of Lahore to a Punjabi-Muslim family and from a young age was inspired to play cricket due to the success of his cousins Umar and Kamran Akmal. The passion to play for the country led him to join a cricket academy which proved to be an avenue for the talented teenager to be included in the domestic teams of Pakistan and eventually the U19 Pakistan Cricket Team. In this article we have curated few Interesting Facts about Babar Azam which may little known to us.

The star batsman made his debut in the year 2015 in a home series against Zimbabwe and scored an impressive fifty in his first appearance on the international stage.

Opportunities started to flow towards him and he became more or less, a permanent member of the international squad but what actually cemented his place in his side and established him as a superstar of Pakistan Cricket was the three match ODI home series against West Indies in 2016.

Azam scored three magnificent centuries consecutively and broke the record for scoring the most runs in a 3 match series scoring an aggregate of 360 runs, thus becoming the first batsman in the world to score more than 350 runs in a 3 match ODI series.

Interesting Facts about Babar Azam

Let’s take a look at some of the lesser known facts about Babar Azam

1. Prior to Babar even playing domestic cricket, he stunned the cricketing world by taking a brilliant catch as a ball boy during a Pakistan vs South Africa match in 2007. The shot was hit by South African batter JP Duminy.

2. Azam is the first cousin to the Akmal brothers – Kamran, Umar and Adnan Akmal, all three of them having played international cricket for Pakistan.

3. Azam idolizes the South African superstar batter AB De Villiers and has expressed his admiration towards the legend on many occasions.

4. Babar was appointed as captain to lead Pakistan in ICC U-19 World Cup in 2012. Azam was the leading run-scorer for Pakistan with 287 runs from six matches at 57.40 and second highest run-scorer overall in the tournament.

5. Babar Azam once disclosed that Mohammad Hafeez advised him to play straight during a One-Day international against England in AbuDhabi in 2015 and it proved to be very beneficial for the youngster.

6. He was expected to make his T20I debut in the Asia Cup 2016 and was all set to play the upcoming T20 World Cup after that, a spot he was robbed of due to a fracture in his left forearm during a practice session in the 2016 edition of the PSL. Sharjeel Khan replaced him in both the tournaments.

7. Azam became the second cricketer to make his Test debut against West Indies in October 2016 in a day-night encounter after Mitchell Santner. Along with Azam, Mohammad Nawaz also made his debut in the same Test.

8. Babar Azam is a fitness freak and takes his gym and workout routines very seriously; a testament to this is his agility and great fielding abilities on the field.

9. He is the present day captain of the Pakistan Mens’ Cricket team in international cricket, the Karachi Kings in the Pakistan Super League and Central Punjab in the domestic cricket circuits.

10. Azam’s net worth is estimated  to be around US$4 Million, a major chunk of which is earned through cricket and his advertisement commitments.

11. He dons the jersey number 56 in international cricket and was 70th capped player for Pakistan in T20Is. His test and ODI cap numbers are 222 and 203, respectively.
12. Babar Azam is the 2nd player in the world T20 Cricket history to smash 10 centuries just behind Chris Gayle who has 22 centuries till now.
13. Babar Azam is the first player to score more than 5000 runs in first 100 ODI innings.