Pakistan captain Babar Azam has been named the ICC Men's ODI Cricketer for the year 2022. The International Cricket Council (ICC) announced him as the winner of the prestigious award on Thursday (January 26, 2023). With this, Babar became the winner of this honour for the second successive year, having also been named the Best ODI cricketer for the calendar 2021.
The year saw the skipper of the Men in Green score as many as 679 runs from 9 matches at an average of 84.87 with three centuries. The 28-year-old has been in exceptional batting form in recent years and has been backing one great year after another. After a great 2021 for which he was bestowed the honour, 2022 was perhaps a step further for Babar in the direction of becoming one of the game's all-time great.
Babar Number 1 in ICC Men's ODI Rankings since July 2021
Babar's consistency stood out as he maintained his lead as the top-ranked batter in the world in the 50-over format. Since July 2021, the Lahore born cricketer has been at the top of the batting charts in One Day Internationals and with the way he has been batting, he does not seem to be in a mood to let go of that crown easily.
While Babar had just 9 matches in the year to prove his might with the bat, he made the most of the opportunities that he got as he scored three hundreds, five half-centuries, leaving just 1 of the 9 games that he played where he was dismissed for a score under 50.
Even as the man in charge of the Pakistan side, Babar had a year to remember in this format as under him the team faced a defeat in just one fixture which came against Australia. His most memorable outing of the year perhaps was the 114 against Australia in Lahore in March. Chasing 349 in a must-win game to remain alive in the series, Babar delivered big time and helped his team level the series.