Babar Azam fits in the pantheon of Fab 4

When, on May 31, 2015, Babar Azam made his international first appearance, Pakistanis suddenly knew that a country well-known for generating world-class fast bowlers has been blessed with a batsman who have the skill and perfect talent to make it big.

In limited-overs cricket, Babar enjoyed remarkable achievement from the start and his qualifications were never in controversy. However, in order to be considered one of the greats of the modern-day game, one has to be adaptable and deliver in all formats of the game and Babar's initial struggles in the Test cricket discouraged experts from counting him in the league of Fab 4 which comprises of India's Virat Kohli, Australia's Steve Smith, England's Joe Root and New Zealand's Kane Williamson.

Until 2017, Babar played 22 Test innings and could gathering only 475 runs at a small average of 23.75. His notable contributions were a successful 90 against New Zealand at Seddon Park and three half-centuries against West Indies.

 

Everyone is in awe of the incredible Babar Azam ⭐ pic.twitter.com/7gCJyataNR

— ICC (@ICC) August 6, 2020

 

Some spoke of how Babar has been praised, others started to talk about how specific players in the domestic circuit can be a good replacement of Babar. As with many previous Pakistani batsmen who were unable to imitate their good limited-overs performance into the hardest format of the game, Babar found his spot in the Test side under analysis.

Against Ireland at Dublin, he scored a match-winning innings of 59. He followed that up with a remarkable 68 against England at Lord's but he was forced to withdraw from cricket after he was hit in the wrist by a rising delivery from Ben Stokes. He continued from where he left off and ended up scoring 1232 runs at a big average of 61.6 in 2018 and 2019 which proved to be amazing years for Babar Azam in Test cricket.

In a brief career of 26 Tests, Babar has already several naps in his résumé cap: century and half century against Australia in Australia, two half-centuries against South Africa in South Africa and a half century against New Zealand in New Zealand.

6️⃣8️⃣4️⃣ runs
1️⃣1️⃣4️⃣ batting average
7️⃣1️⃣ strike rate
4️⃣ centuries

Babar Azam has been lighting up the World Test Championship! 🔥🔥🔥 #ENGvPAK pic.twitter.com/4pEYqWevVm

— ICC (@ICC) August 5, 2020

He scored more than 1800 runs in Tests at an average of more than 45, 3359 ODI runs at 54.17, and 1471 in T20Is at 50.72 are impressive numbers. Not only Babar has the reliable hunger to keep piling on runs, his wide collection of remarkable shots makes his batting appealingly pleasing to the eye.