Babar Azam announced his decision to step down as Pakistan’s captain on 2 October. (X)
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
- Babar Azam steps down as Pakistan captain
- Babar captained Pakistan from 2019 to 2024 in two stints
- Azam one of Pakistan’s most successful captains of all time
Babar Azam recently stepped down as Pakistan’s captain making the announcement on social media on 2 October. Babar led Pakistan from 2019 to 2024, and his stint saw Pakistan cricket go through various highs and lows.
From helping the Men in Green reach the final of the T20 World Cup in 2021, wherein they finished runners-up to England, to Pakistan’s early exit from the 2024 T20 World Cup, Babar Azam has seen his fair share of ups and downs.
For the unversed, Pakistan’s defeat to Sri Lanka in the 2019 home series resulted in a major change as Sarfaraz Khan paved the way for Azhar Ali who was then replaced by Babar Azam. A young Babar was one of the most promising batters back then, and there were high hopes from him to lead the side.
Fast forward five years later, Babar Azam has led Pakistan through two Asia Cups and the 2023 ICC World Cup, as well as three T20 World Cups. However, he was unable to guide his team to any of the aforementioned ICC trophies. The biggest achievement of Babar’s captaincy stint was the runners-up finish in the 2021 T20 World Cup.
The 29-year-old has captained Pakistan in 20 Test matches, having picked up 10 victories along the way. In ODI cricket, Babar Azam led Pakistan in 43 matches, registering 26 wins and 15 losses. In the T20I format, Pakistan won 48 and lost 29 games under Azam.
In total, Babar led Pakistan in more than 100 matches across formats, and he is the second most successful captain behind Imran Khan who led Pakistan in 187 matches and won 89 of them. Even Imran had a win percentage of 47.5%, but Babar Azam has guided Pakistan to 84 wins in 148 matches, recording a win percentage of 56.7%.
Wasim Akram (58.2%) and Sarfaraz Ahmed (61%) both have higher win percentages than Babar but they led Pakistan in fewer games than Azam.
With England due to visit Pakistan for a three-match Test series, it remains to be seen whether the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) will continue to back Shan Masood who has lost all five matches as red-ball captain, and they will also have to find a successor to Babar Azam in ODI and T20I formats.
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