Babar Azam named ICC Men’s ODI Cricketer of the Year

Pakistan’s all-format captain Babar Azam has been named the ICC Men’s ODI Cricketer of the Year for his achievements as a captain of Pakistan cricket team and his individual performances.

Babar scored 405 runs in six matches at an average of 67.50 with two centuries. He played only six ODIs in 2021, but he made vital contributions in the two series that Pakistan played this year.

He was the second-highest run-scorer with 228 runs and was the Player of the Match in both of Pakistan’s wins in the 2-1 series victory against South Africa. The architect of Pakistan’s chase of 274 in the first ODI, Babar made a century and laid the foundation with an 82-ball 94 in the final ODI where the visitors posted 320 batting first.

He was the lone warrior for Pakistan when they were swept by England 3-0. He accumulated 177 runs in three games but found no support as none of the other batters managed to score more than 100 in the series.

Azam’s best performance this year came in a losing cause in the final ODI against England.

With the series already lost, Pakistan were playing for pride as well as crucial ICC Cricket World Cup Super League points in the third ODI at Birmingham. Put in to bat first, Pakistan posted 331, with Babar scoring close to half of the team’s runs.

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Not only in ODIs but Babar was also good with the bat in the ICC T20I World Cup 2021. Azam registered the most number of runs in a maiden T20 world cup with 303, which makes him the first batsman to score 300 runs in the T20 World Cup 2021.

Twitter is flooded with congratulatory notes for the 27-year-old skipper. We have collected a few, have a look: