Pakistan’s all-format captain, Babar Azam, has finally received his ODI and T20I caps after being named in the 2021 team of the year in both formats. Babar had an outstanding run of form in limited-overs cricket last year and he was rewarded for his performance by being named in the team of the year by the International Cricket Council (ICC).
Babar took to social media to share his image of holding both the team of the year caps as he captioned the image, “Hard work pays off”.
Hard work pays off 🤗 pic.twitter.com/HwyvSXl672
— Babar Azam (@babarazam258) June 15, 2022
The world’s number one ODI and T20I batter was remarkable with the bat throughout the last year. He scored 405 runs at an average of 67.50 and a strike rate of 108.00 in 6 matches he played in the 50-over format. He also scored two centuries and one half-century in his six innings.
His T20I record was sublime as well. He was the second-highest run-scorer in the calendar year, only behind the fellow opening batter, Mohammad Rizwan. Babar scored 939 runs at an average of 37.56 and a strike rate of 127.58 in 26 innings he played in 2021. He also crossed the 50-run mark 9 times and scored a sensational century against South Africa.
Babar and Fakhar Zaman were the two Pakistani players included in ICC’s ODI team of the year while Mohammad Rizwan and Shaheen Afridi were part of the ICC T20I team of the year.
