Green Shirts skipper Babra Azam on Sunday celebrated his 29th birthday with fellow teammates, coaches and support staff upon reaching the team’s hotel in Bengaluru, India.

Babar, who is the number one ranked one-day international (ODI) batsman, can be seen flanked by teammates, coaches and support staff cheering for him as he cut the cake as seen from the video posted by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).

Earlier today, a video of pacer Hasan Ali’s daughter presenting Babar Azam with a bucket of flowers on his 29th birthday surfaced. He thanked the little girl by hugging her.

After making his debut against Zimbabwe in 2015 in Lahore, Babar has changed the fortunes of Pakistan cricket as the team which was recognised due to their batting failures has now turned into a match-winning outfit.

Calling Azam the key to Pakistan’s success in the recent past would not be wrong on any level as he not only led this side to number one rank in ODIs but also performed consistently with the bat — with many records broken and some still to break.

It was also under his captaincy Pakistan became the number-one team in ODI cricket for the first time in history.

Until now, the 29-year-old represented Pakistan in 264 matches over all three formats and has amassed a total of 12,731 runs at an impressive 49.15 average.

He is also one of the very few batters in the world to have a century in all three formats. His high score in Test cricket is 196, which came against the mighty Australia as he stood till the last day and helped Pakistan avoid a defeat in March 2022.

His high score in ODI is 158, which he scored against England in July 2021 in Birmingham. In T20I, his highest score is 122, which came against South Africa in April 2021.