Babar Azam, born on 15 October 1994 in Lahore, is a celebrated Pakistani cricketer who rose from humble beginnings—his father ran a small watch repair shop, and he once worked as a ball boy at Gaddafi Stadium—before being inspired by his cousins Kamran and Umar Akmal to pursue the sport. He made his ODI debut in May 2015 against Zimbabwe with a solid 54 runs, and his Test debut in October 2016 against the West Indies, where he became the first player to score a fifty on Test debut in a day/night match. In 2016, he achieved a stunning milestone by scoring three consecutive centuries against the West Indies, setting a record for the most runs (360) in a three-match ODI series. By January 2017, he became the joint-fastest player to reach 1,000 ODI runs (in just 21 innings) for Pakistan, a record later surpassed by his teammate Fakhar Zaman. As a former captain of Pakistan in all three formats, he led the team to win the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy and currently captains Peshawar Zalmi in the Pakistan Super League.