Babar Azam

Babar Azam is a Pakistani international cricketer, born on 15 October 1994 in a family from the Walled City of Lahore, and a former captain of the Pakistan team in all three formats. A right-handed top-order batter, he captains Peshawar Zalmi in the Pakistan Super League and was a member of the Pakistan side that won the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy. He was drawn to the game by his cousins Kamran and Umar Akmal and began as a ball boy at Gaddafi Stadium before joining a cricket academy. He made his one day international debut on 31 May 2015 with 54 runs from 60 balls, his Test debut against the West Indies in Dubai on 13 October 2016, becoming the first player to score a fifty on debut in a day and night Test, and his Twenty20 international debut in September 2016. On 30 August 2023 he became the fastest player to reach 19 one day international centuries, in 102 innings. He resigned the captaincy after the 2023 World Cup, was reappointed in March 2024 and stood down again in October 2024, and he was named ICC Men's ODI Cricketer of the Year for 2021.