Pakistan’s prolific runs-getter Babar Azam is on top of his game for the last few years. Whether it is T20 Internationals, Tests, or One-day Internationals, he has been dominating with the bat in different conditions across the world.

Today, we are not discussing his brilliance in the T20Is or his rise in Test cricket, but we are going to discuss his unmatched dominance in the 50-over format.

Since clinching the top spot from India’s great Virat Kohli in the International Cricket Council (ICC) ODI player’s rankings, Babar Azam has been in phenomenal form. He scored a total of 228 runs in Pakistan’s famous series win against South Africa back in 2021 to achieve the feat for the first time in his career.

He has been the top runs-getter in ODIs with 1,450 at an astonishing average of 80.55 since 2020. He struck nine half-centuries and six centuries in the format, which is also the most by any batter or captain in that duration.

In 2022, Babar Azam started off with a band smashing two tons and a half-century against Australia as Pakistan stun the visitors in the three-match ODI series with a 2-1 victory. He was the leading run-getter in the series with 276.

He then scored another ton against West Indies, only to become the first batter to score three centuries on a trot twice. In that series, he scored 181 runs.

Overall in his last 12 ODI innings, Babar Azam has scored four tons and seven half-centuries. This number is just enough to cement his legacy as one of the best in the business.

Moreover, Babar Azam averages 80.33 batting at the number three position in matches won, while no batter in world cricket averages more than him in winning causes (min: 40 inns played). Even, Virat Kohli’s average at the same position in matches won is 70.03, which is the second-best in the format.

Overall, if we apply the same 40-innings criteria, Babar Azam’s average is still the highest among the cricket greats at the number three position. He is averaging 65.66 as compared to 60.83 of Virat Kohli, 57.57 of Viv Richards, Steve Smith’s 55.86, and Faf du Plessis’ 55.50, which are some unreal numbers.

The Pakistan all-format captain is also miles ahead if we compare him to the country’s top five runs getter in the format.

Only Mohammad Yousuf, the Pakistan batting coach, has an average above 40 and has the best innings per fifty-plus score ratio among the aforementioned five players in the table. And with 20 tons, Saeed Anwar has scored the most number of ODI centuries for Pakistan in 244 innings. It means that he scored a century once every 12.2 innings in the format.

If we take a look at Babar Azam numbers, they are out of this world. The 28-year-old has already scored close to 5,000 ODI runs, and averages a whopping 60.11 in the format, a good 18.03 more than Yousuf, who has the best average among the top five run-getters.

Babar has scored 17 three-figure scores in 92 innings in ODI cricket, which means that he scores a ton once every 5.41 innings. This ratio of Azam is more than twice as good as Saeed Anwar’s ratio of 12.2 innings per ODI hundred.

So, there is no doubt that Azam is way ahead at this juncture even when he is pitted against the all-time greats of Pakistan or world cricket as far as their overall records are concerned.