Virat Kohli, Steve Smith, Kane Williamson, and Joe Root are part of the ‘fab four’ because of their exceptional performances and consistency across all three formats. Babar Azam’s inclusion into the list, turning it into a ‘fab five’ has been a point of discussion amongst the cricketing fraternity for some time now.
The argument presented against Babar’s inclusion was that “he needs to perform at such a level consistently over a longer period.” Babar has been the spine of the Pakistani batting line-up for over a couple of years now and he was rewarded with the captaincy of the limited-overs side by PCB.
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Babar has had a stellar two years in which he scored eight centuries across all formats. Four of his centuries have been scored in Tests, while four have been scored in ODIs. He scored nine centuries in three years before this.
His rich vein of form has continued in the ongoing Zimbabwe tour of Pakistan. He scored a century in the third ODI and has scored two consecutive half-centuries in the T20I series. He was also promising with the bat in Pakistan’s recent tour of England, scoring two half-centuries in Tests and one half-century in T20Is.
His status as a top-five batsman has been confirmed by the fact that he is the only batsman in the world to be ranked in the top five of each format. He also looks set to regain his top spot in T20I batsman rankings as well.
Adding to his list of records, Babar Azam is the leading run-scorer across all formats since 1 January 2019, five runs ahead of Virat Kohli, having played six innings less.
The top 5 run-scorers since 1 January 2019 are as follows:
| Player | Matches | Innings | Runs | Average | 100s |
| Babar Azam | 50 | 56 | 2917 | 60.77 | 8 |
| Virat Kohli | 59 | 62 | 2912 | 54.94 | 7 |
| Rohit Sharma | 54 | 54 | 2753 | 52.94 | 11 |
| Joe Root | 52 | 65 | 2437 | 40.61 | 5 |
| Quinton de Kock | 43 | 53 | 2318 | 45.45 | 4 |
In comparison, Kane Williamson and Steve Smith are not even in the top five, however they have played fewer matches. Kane Williamson has scored 1,841 runs at an average of 49.75, while Smith has scored 2,040 runs at an average of 56.66. Both have featured in 38 matches.
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During this period, Babar Azam has scored 954 runs at an average of 68.14 in Tests, 1,313 runs at an average of 65.65 in ODIs, and 650 runs at an average of 46.42 in T20Is. He has scored four centuries in both Tests and ODIs and is yet to score a century in T20Is.
What are your thoughts? Should Babar be considered as one of the top batsmen in world cricket and ‘Fab Four’ be turned into ‘Fab Five’? Let us know in the comments below!
