Babar Azam PSL Career Profile – PSL 2024 Performance

Mohammad Babar Azam, born on 15 October 1994 in Lahore, Punjab, is a well-known cricketer worldwide because of their outstanding performance in multiple innings. He is also the Pakistani International Cricket Team captain in all formats. The PSL 9 Live Streaming 2024 is available here.

He is the only batsman who ranked top 3 in all formats in the ICC rankings. Babar was ranked number 1 in ODI and 3 in T20s and tests. He is considered one of the most successful batsmen of all time.

Babar Azam

If you think success stories come from privileged backgrounds or there is nothing like rags to riches, you are wrong. This following quote from Babar’s father will prove you wrong.

“His cousins refused (The Akmal brothers) to give him their old sports shoes”

From this to what he is for Pakistan cricket right now, the story is phenomenal. Let’s read some more details of Babar’s story.

Born in Lahore, his adventure began with an under-15 global tournament in 2008, and he participated in two under-19 World Cups, during which he was Pakistan’s leading run-scorer in 2010 and 2012.

Debut days

Before being picked into the national team in 2015, Azam was the highest-scoring player in age-group club cricket. He made his first appearance during the home ODI series versus Zimbabwe. So his career started with a new age starting for Pakistan cricket history. It was the first international cricket match in Pakistan after the 2009 tragedy. Babar’s destiny was determined. He was the player who would go on to be the best for Pakistan.

His 3 consecutive  ODI centuries versus the West Indies earned him a Test debut in the campaign, and Azam had the chance to solidify his status when Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-careers Haq’s waned.

His career – Babar’s class

He’d seize the chance. Over the years, Azam rose to become Pakistan’s top batter, the nation’s most recognized player, and one of the finest batters in the world. Despite a significant portion of his game remaining for him, he is one of Pakistan’s finest batters of all time.

While the first few years of his Test career did not offer him the immediate success of limited-overs cricket, consistent gains year after year, fans have witnessed him stand among the finest Test batters since the beginning of 2018.

Several Pakistani players of this era have shown signs of decline after a few seasons on the field, but Azam, thankfully for Pakistan, is impervious to even that melancholy. He came in when Pakistan needed him the most, and he performed. Babar is still performing.

Babar Azam PSL statistics

He started his journey with Islamabad United as a silver-category player. It was his stint with Karachi Kings that made him the player that he is today. Surprisingly, Babar is transferred to Peshawar Zalmi for PSL 8.

Let’s talk about Babar’s PSL statistics.

Batting

He is the top scorer in PSL so far. With 2413 runs and an average of 42, he is the batsman to look for in PSL. Babar’s stroke play in PSL has been immaculate. His cover drive is something fans can never get over from.

You open the social media during the PSL, and the pages are full of Babar Azam playing a cover drive. A sweet song comes out of Babar’s bat when he plays this shot. The sound of the ball middling the bat, his balance, his confidence, his expressions. Everything in the universe seems perfect when Babar goes into his cover drive.

Right now, Babar has no 100 in PSL. But he looks eager to change things.

Bowling

Babar bowls rarely. But still, why not.

Okay, this is something hilarious and interesting at the same time. He rarely bowls, so we had to present his overall bowling career in T20s. So, what is this? In 244 T20 matches, he has bowled in 5 and taken 4 wickets. WHAT!

And look at those bowling figures. I mean, it is an economy rate that will make him one of the best. It is like he is pulling a prank on us. In bowling, Babar is one of those students who say that they haven’t studied anything but end up getting the highest grade.

Okay, enough of the jokes. Babar could have gone for the all-rounder role if he had worked on his bowling. But, fortunately for Pakistan, he didn’t. Pakistan needed a specialist batsman, which he is, fortunately.

Babar Azam PSL history

Coming to its PSL career, Babar Azam represented Islamabad United during its inaugural season. He then moved to Karachi Kings in 2017. Babar performed well, with an average of 32.33 runs per innings and became the second-leading run-scorer in the tournament. He was retained as a player of Karachi Kings in 2018 as the third-highest scorer in the tournament. Babar was again retained as the player of Karachi Kings.

PSL Records

Let’s look at his PSL records.

Ranking 6th on the most number of ducks with 6 0s. Isn’t that an interesting stat?

But this is not why we are here. We are here to know how well Babar did in some of the records. It is true that Babar isn’t the sort of player to go over the top and have the highest strike rate or most sixers. But he is the number one batsman in PSL. Why? The stats explain everything. He is ranked 1 in having the most runs, highest average, and 50s in PSL. I am still surprised why Karach let him go.

Babar’s Miscellaneous records

He stirred up not only the PSL but the whole world. Let’s look at some interesting statistics he has in world cricket.

• 1st in most runs in a series as a captain in the ODIs by scoring 1454 runs
• He ranks 1st by having the most 100s in an ODI series
• 2nd the fastest player to reach 4000 runs in ODIs
• 1st by leading most T20 matches consecutively as a captain.
• 4th highest batting average in ODIs
• 2nd on getting the most player of the series awards in T20s
• The fastest player ever to reach 3000 runs in T20.

Babar in Leadership roles

In 2020, he was appointed as the Vice Captain of PSL with the top-scoring batsman in the tournament. He scored 473 runs with an average of 59.12 scores and made his team in the tournament. Babar won different awards in that tournament and was also the Player of the Tournament in that PSL season.

He was appointed as the Captain of the Karachi Kings in 2021. For the 2023 Pakistan Super League, he was traded by Karachi Kings to Peshawar Zalmi.

Conclusion

When historians write about the history of Pakistan cricket, they will write about Babar as one of the best cricketers for Pakistan of all time. Babar isn’t just some batsman. He is the messiah for Pakistan cricket fans looking for a solid batsman. Batting had always been a problem for Pakistan since the old guns like Saeed Anwar had retired. It was an old disease that still plagued Pakistan. But with Babar’s arrival, things started to get good for them. Pakistan has started chasing the targets. With a classy batsman like Babar, more players will follow as kids see him as an inspiration.