For the Pakistan fans and the cricketing world in general, Babar Azam has been an enigma.

Till recently he was even criticized for not being "test material".

For some, rightly so, considering he had played 16 tests, batted in 31 innings, and had not scored a century. To top it off, his test average was below 30.

At the same time, he was totally rocking white ball cricket as the only batsman in the world with a 50+ average in both ODIs and T20Is.

In a career that is 3 years old, Babar started his 17th test having smashed 8 ODI centuries, 9 ODI fifties, 8 T20I fifties, and 8 Test fifties.

Despite a 99 in the series against Australia and an unbeaten 90 in New Zealand, Babar was criticized heavily for not converting starts in tests and for not being a test batsman.

It all changed during his 32nd test inning.

As Pakistan added to New Zealand's agony in the field over two days during the second test, Babar was instrumental in taking Pakistan past 400 as he knocked his first test ton.

Babar's unbeaten 127 was a coming of age innings.

He finally crossed the barrier of the nervous nineties and he finally showed the world that he can bat in whites too.

No doubt that he has been extremely prolific in limited overs cricket and has not been able to extend that form to test cricket, but at least now he has brought up the coveted first test century.

From hereon, there should be no looking back for Babar Azam, who is Pakistan's first true all format batsman since the days of Inzamam Ul Haq.

Even though Babar had not scored a test ton, I feel the criticism he received was a bit unfair.

If one is to look at his test scores before the 100, then this season against Australia and New Zealand, he had scores of 4, 28*, 0, 99, 62, 13. Not mind blowing but also not worthy of criticism.

Even prior to that he scored 68 against England in Pakistan's victory at Lord's an innings that was cut short due to injury. He really looked like scoring a century during that innings.

What is even more interesting is that for all batsmen that have batted in at least 10 test innings in 2018, Babar Azam has the best average!

Even better than Virat Kohli's!


Look at the batsmen he is performing better than - ABD, Root - both modern legends of the game.

Now that Babar has reached his first test ton, I don't think he will ever look back. The runs will flow from his bat in tests and there is no doubt in my mind that he will become one of the best, if not the best, batsman to ever play for Pakistan.

Pakistanis love to criticize and I am guilty of it too.

Azhar Ali bats too slowly. What is Haris Sohail doing out there? Yasir Shah is not the same bowler any more. Babar Azam is only suitable for white ball cricket. Where did that declaration come from? Why didn't they accelerate before declaring out of the blue? Why did they enforce the follow on? If New Zealand set a target of 120 or so, Pakistan will lose.

This and a whole lot more was said during the second test between Pakistan and New Zealand and none of it mattered at the end as Pakistan raced home to a win by an innings and 16 runs to level the test series and set it up for a decider next week.

Azhar Ali, who bats way too slowly, scored 81.

Haris Sohail, who seemed all at sea out there, top scored in the match with 147.

Yasir Shah, who is not the same bowler any more, returned career best match figures of 14-184.

Babar Azam, who is only suitable for limited overs cricket, scored his maiden test century - an unbeaten 127.

And the declaration, which seemed unplanned and out of the blue, was perfectly timed. Mickey Arthur and Sarfraz felt that 418 was more than enough on that pitch to bowl New Zealand out twice, and they were spot on!

Yasir Shah, who was overshadowed in the test series against Australia by Bilal Asif, Mohammad Abbas, and even the touring spinner Nathan Lyon, showed the world why he is the best leg spinner in the game currently.

His 14-184 are the second best bowling figures in a test match by a Pakistani, after Imran Khan's 14-116.


His 8-41 in the first innings, which included a triple wicket maiden over, are the third best bowling figures in an innings by a Pakistan, after Abdul Qadir's 9-56 and Sarfraz Nawaz's 9-86.


Yasir's 14 wickets in the match took his test wickets tally to 195 in only 32 test matches. He is well on his way to break the record of being the quickest in the world to reach 200 test wickets.


Yasir's innings haul of 8-41 and match hail of 14-184 are both the best figures in an innings and in a match in all tests played in the UAE.

No bowler had taken more than 11 wickets in a test in the UAE before Yasir's heroics, and he is only the second bowler to take an 8 wicket haul in an innings in the UAE.


Yasir's innings and match hauls are also the best figures by any bowler in the history of test cricket against New Zealand!

He is the 5th bowler to take 8 wickets in an innings and the first ever to take 14 wickets in a match against New Zealand.


Yasir's match haul is third best ever for a leg spinner in the history of test cricket, behind Narendra Hirwani's 16-136 and Anil Kumble's 14-149.


Yasir Shah now has 195 wickets in just 32 tests at an average of 28.2 and a phenomenal strike rate of 54.4, which is the third best strike rate among all spinners, and second best among leg spinners in tests (those who have bowled in at least 50 innings).


It won't be long before Yasir reaches 200 test wickets and creates a new record of reaching the mark in quickest time. With the way he is bowling right now (22 wickets in 2 tests vs New Zealand), I reckon he will achieve this feat in the next test against New Zealand, which starts next week on Monday in Abu Dhabi.

Shaheen Shah Afridi ended the ODI series against New Zealand with 9 wickets, behind only Lockie Ferguson's 11 wickets, but at a better average and strike rate.

Shaheen's 9 wickets consisted of two 4-wicket hauls in each of the first two ODIs and before rain spoiled the match last night, he had already got rid of Colin Munro. Who knows how many more he would have got had the match been completed.

Deservedly so, the 18 year old left arm pacer was adjudged Man of the Series.


Shaheen has been a great find for Pakistan.

Only 6 ODIs old, his bowling stats are astonishing, more so because he has played all his ODIs in the UAE, where pitches favor either the batsmen or the spinners.

Shaheen's 13 ODI wickets in 6 games have come at an average of 17.61, an economy rate of 4.88, and a strike rate of 21.6 - that is a wicket every 4th over he bowls in ODIs!

Even in T20Is, Shaheen has been quite effective picking up 11 wickets in 7 games at an average of 18.45.

I really want to say "ek Afridi gaya, ek aur aa gaya" but this is more about the pace talent that Pakistan keeps on churning out.

Just when Pakistan is feeling that they may have lost their star left armer Mohammad Aamir, they have found Shaheen Afridi who seems to improve with every match he plays.

He has just made it to Pakistan's test squad for the series against New Zealand and the prospect of seeing him bowl with the red cherry is even more exciting.

Another exciting left armer with a bright future for Pakistan is Usman Khan Shinwari.

Why he did not play a single ODI against New Zealand is beyond me. Especially at a time when Hasan Ali was struggling for form.

Usman's ODI record is even better than Shaheen's!


In 9 ODIs, Usman has picked up 18 wickets at an average of 15.27, economy rate of 4.66, and strike rate of 19.6 - better than Shaheen in all three areas.

Which makes it really strange that he was on the bench against New Zealand.

Among all pacers that have taken at least 10 wickets in ODIs in 2018, Usman and Shaheen are right up there in terms of their averages.


Both of them are among the only 5 pacers in the world with an average under 20 this year.

Plus, Shaheen's strike rate is among the absolute best, right up there with Dale Steyn's.

Together, Usman and Shaheen can form a potent new ball attack, which can be extremely dangerous in South Africa early next year and then in England during the World Cup.

Both of them have tremendous potential and have made it much easier for Pakistan to not miss a struggling Mohammad Aamer.

The Pakistan team and fans thought that New Zealand were going to provide a stronger fight than Australia, which was probably a first for the Kiwis to be considered more dangerous than their antipodean neighbors.

The first T20I showed just that as Pakistan scraped home with a 2 run win.

The next one, even though it seems like an easy win on paper, also went to the last over as Pakistan hit the winning runs with only 2 balls to spare.

With their 11th consecutive T20I series win under the belt, Pakistan could have become complacent and taken the third match lightly.

Not this Pakistan though.

They were ruthless and turned out at their best, posting their highest T20I total of this season beating New Zealand comprehensively by 47 runs.

No one could have predicted such a dominant season in T20 cricket for Pakistan. As some experts put it aptly - the most unpredictable team is the most consistent in the sport's most unpredictable format.

Fathom that.

Take a look at online cricket betting sites too, such as www.onlinecricketbettingsites.com, and you will realize that while Pakistan were termed favorites for the T20s against Australia and New Zealand, the odds were not too stacked up in their favor.

Here's a look at some of the record breaking feats of the team, its batsmen, and its bowlers.

THE TEAM

After their win last night, Pakistan became the first team to clean sweep New Zealand in a T20I series.

In the process, Pakistan became the only team to win 11 consecutive T20I series.

Pakistan have also become the only team, besides Afghanistan, to win 9 consecutive T20Is.

And with 17 T20I wins in 2018 they have won more T20Is in a year than any other team!

This has improved Pakistan's W:L ratio under Sarfraz Ahmed even further taking it to an unprecedented 7.25!


THE BATSMEN

Pakistan's batsmen continue to smash T20 records as well.

Babar Azam scored his 1000th T20I run on his way to 79 last night, becoming the quickest batsman to achieve that feat in 26 innings, breaking Virat Kohli's record of 27 innings.

That is something we will not hear too much of in our lifetime - breaking a Virat Kohli batting record.


Babar has been ever so consistent in T20Is, which is extremely impressive considering he is not a big hitter of the ball. He bats traditionally and plays the ball on the ground, yet is effective and scores at a fair pace without getting bogged down.

He rotates the strike and pierces the gaps in the field with utmost ease.

His consistency has enabled him to stretch his lead over other batsmen - he remains the only batsman in the world with a batting average in excess of 50 in T20 internationals.

Once again, ahead of the great Virat Kohli.


There is one Kohli record, however, that Babar was unable to break - 641 runs in a calendar year in T20 internationals.

Yet, Babar and Fakhar are right up there as the two leading run scorers in T20 Internationals in 2018.


Actually, Babar was never really in the running to break that record considering he missed 7 of Pakistan's T20 Internationals in 2018.

However, Fakhar Zaman had the record in sight.

But injury, which made him miss a T20I each against Australia and New Zealand, coupled with indifferent form, resulted in him falling short of the 641.

THE BOWLERS

On the bowling front, Shadab Khan has continued to raise his stock in T20 Internationals.

His 3 wickets last night took his tally to 28 wickets in 2018, the highest in the year, and the joint highest in a calendar year ever.


Shadab's 2018 wickets tally is equal to Bumrah's; however Shadab has managed it in fewer matches, at the same economy, and at a better average and strike rate.

Shadab is also the second highest wicket taker in T20 Internationals in the period starting from Sarfraz Ahmed's captaincy in the format.


Two other Pakistani bowlers feature in this list as well - Hasan Ali and Imad Wasim.

Hasan is among the few pacers in the list and has the most T20I wickets in this period among pacers.

The bowlers are firing, the batsmen are piling on the runs, the team is winning rolling on like a T20 juggernaut - happy times for Pakistan's T20 cricket!