Babar Azam becomes highest scoring Pakistani batter in all formats of a calendar year

Published
9
Skipper Babar Azam during the first day of the first Test match between Pakistan and New Zealand at the National Stadium in Karachi on Monday. — Pakistan Cricket Twitter
Skipper Babar Azam during the first day of the first Test match between Pakistan and New Zealand at the National Stadium in Karachi on Monday. — Pakistan Cricket Twitter

Babar Azam on Monday became the Pakistani batter with the most runs — 2,436 — in all formats of the game in a calendar year.

Babar broke the record of former captain and incumbent batting coach Mohammad Yousaf, who made the record in 2006 with 2,435 runs to his name.

The national team captain played 51 innings in 44 matches in 2022 and averaged 55.30, with his highest score being 196.

According to ESPNcricinfo, the skipper scored eight hundreds and 17 fifties in the outgoing year.

Babar claimed the record on the opening day of the first Test against New Zealand while he was on his way to a century. He led Pakistan’s recovery to 224-4 at tea, after New Zealand’s spinners made early inroads.

Despite the mountain of runs he has piled up this year, Babar’s tally — to which he can still add — was some way short of the world record held by Ricky Ponting, who amassed 2,833 runs in 2005.

Opinion

Editorial

Breaking the cycle
Updated 24 Oct, 2026

Breaking the cycle

Workers’ remittances have helped the current account and rebuilt reserves, and continued external borrowing has bought time.
Gaza starvation
24 Oct, 2026

Gaza starvation

ON account of funding cuts and Israeli cruelty, the threat of famine once again looms over the occupied Gaza Strip....
Harvesting rackets
24 Oct, 2026

Harvesting rackets

ORGAN vending rarely leaves the spotlight. The FIA and the Human Organ Transplantation Authority recently took five...
Nuclear uncertainty
Updated 23 Oct, 2026

Nuclear uncertainty

With matters frozen in the political and diplomatic spheres, it will take military-to-military engagement to prevent miscalculation in the strategic sphere.
Auto illusion
Updated 23 Oct, 2026

Auto illusion

PAKISTAN’S draft auto policy 2026-31 is ambitious in its targets and directionless in its strategy. It promises...
Two crimes
23 Oct, 2026

Two crimes

THE senseless killing of a teenager by his employers in Multan is a crime that deserves unqualified condemnation. It...