They have turned a corner and have the kind of belief in themselves that past Pakistan teams have not had.

For three decades Pakistan fans have been scarred by many a chase in Tests and ODIs where they have looked like winning the match, only to falter during the final lap.

Not this Pakistan team!

While the team seems to have moved forward from the scars of the past; for Pakistan fans it will take time for these scars to heal. We are probably the most nervous cricket fans in the world. Anyone will favor the team that requires 50 odd runs to win with 6 wickets in hand. Not Pakistani fans though!

I think it is time for us fans to start believing in this team as well. Us fan should also have the kind of belief that Babar has instilled in his players.

Babar's overall record as captain across formats is extremely impressive. He has a win percentage of over 60% in all three formats.

What is even more impressive is Pakistan's record under Babar while chasing totals. No other Pakistan team has looked as comfortable as this one while chasing totals.

Yes there have been impressive run chases in the past, especially the ones in Tests against Sri Lanka in 2014 and 2015, which were Pakistan's only two successful run chases of targets above 300. 

But those were one-off.

Babar Azam's team has pulled off record run chases in each of the three formats in the past 1 year!

It all started in April 2021 when Pakistan chased down 188 against South Africa in Johannesburg. It was their highest successful chase in T20Is.

That record remained intact for just 3 days as Pakistan easily chased down a record target of 204 in only 18 overs, while losing only 1 wicket, against South Africa at Centurion.

8 months later, Pakistan were at it again successfully chasing down 208 against the West Indies in Karachi; again easily winning by 7 wickets with 7 deliveries to spare.

Pakistan created 3 T20I records within a year!

In March of this year, Pakistan broke the record of their highest ever successful chase in ODIs when they chased down Australia's 348 and won the match by 6 wickets with an over to spare.

Today, Pakistan completed a successful chase of their second highest total in Tests - 342. This is the highest ever total chased at Galle, the fourth highest ever chased in Sri Lanka and the second highest ever chased against Sri Lanka.

This Pakistan team has been breaking record after record, and it is just starting off. We are only in the second year of Babar Azam's captaincy and his team has reached unprecedented heights.

The best part about these chases is that they have been completed confidently, without many stutters. There haven't been nervy last wicket scrapes. Just pure confident batting, pure confident chasing.

Babar has grown in stature with every passing day.

From being the best white ball batsman in the world, he is today the best batsman in the world across formats, and well on his way to being the best cricket captain in the world too!

Under Babar, Pakistan is a force to reckon with.

I do not even remember the last time Pakistan were this consistent across formats.

And I hope that soon there comes a time where I remember only this Pakistan. The world beating Pakistan!

I don't think there has ever been a more mismatched ODI series than the one between Pakistan and Zimbabwe that just concluded last night. Already ranked 11, Zimbabwe were further weakened by the absence of a few players resulting in them fielding a second string XI in the series. And hence the flurry of records broken and created by the Pakistanis.

Weak opposition or not, I am not going to take anything away from Pakistan's young ODI team, which has grown in character by the day since that fateful Champions Trophy win a year ago.

This ODI team is special. This team has reached, and I believe, will continue to reach, uncharted territory with respect to Pakistan's ODI cricket.

A SUPERSTAR TOP 3
Collectively they have not even played 100 ODIs and neither one has yet completed 50 ODIs, so it is too early to make judgments, however it is quite a feat for a nation not known to produce top quality batsmen that each one of its top 3 - Fakhar Zaman, Imam-Ul-Haq, and Babar Azam - is averaging over 50 in ODIs!

And these averages are not inflated by not outs!

The first ever batsman from Pakistan to average above 50 in ODIs emerged a year and a half ago. Now there are two more.

FAKHAR's RECORD SPREE
Fakhar Zaman is an absolute star!

He made his ODI debut just over a year ago in the Champions Trophy 2017, which he capped with a scintillating match winning century in the final against India.

He hasn't looked back since.

Most Runs in a 5-ODI Bilateral Series
He ended the ODI series against Zimbabwe with 515 runs, a new record for runs scored in a 5-match bilateral ODI series and the second highest run tally in any bilateral ODI series.

Most ODI Runs Between Dismissals
During the series, Fakhar was dismissed only twice, and in between those two dismissals he amassed 455 runs, which is a record for number of runs scored in ODIs between dismissals.

The previous record was also held by a Pakistan batsman, Mohammad Yousuf, who knocked 405 runs also against Zimbabwe. The third batsman to score 400 runs between 2 ODI dismissals is Lance Klusener who managed this during his dream run at the World Cup 1999.

Fastest to 1,000 ODI Runs
Fakhar's run spree led him to another record during the series when he reached 1,000 ODI runs and became the fastest batsman to achieve the feat in only his 18th innings. He broke the previous record of 21 innings, which was jointly held by Sir Viv Richards, Kevin Pietersen, Babar Azam, Jonathan Trott, and Quinton de Kock.

IMAM UL HAQ's STUNNING START
He was labelled a 'parchi' given his family ties to Pakistan's chief selector Inzamam Ul Haq, but how he has thrown that label away by outclassing even his paternal uncle's ODI career launch.

Inzamam made his ODI debut in late 1991 and very quickly stamped his authority in international cricket by scoring 2 centuries and 2 fifties in his first 10 ODIs.

Now 26 years later, his nephew Imam, has bettered that by scoring 4 centuries in his first 9 ODIs!

No one has scored this many this quick.

There is only one other batsman who has scored 3 centuries in his first 10 ODIs - Dennis Amiss.

Think about this - Virat Kohli and Hashim Amla, who have the best frequency of scoring 100s in ODIs, scored their 4th century in their 36th and 30th ODI respectively. While Sachin Tendulkar, who has scored more ODI centuries than anyone in the world, scored his 4th century in his 96th ODI!

Imam scored his 4th in his 9th ODI! He added three tons to his tally, which also includes a debut ODI ton, during the series against Zimbabwe.

I agree with most critics who feel that Imam's strike rate requires improvement and that he is not a modern day ODI batsman and may be better suited to test cricket. However, I also feel that 4 centuries in 9 ODIs cannot be ignored and that he is probably the best foil to Fakhar Zaman's aggression at the other end.

Give him time and I believe his strike rate will improve as his confidence grows as we witnessed in the 5th ODI against Zimbabwe.

FAKHAR & IMAM - THE PARTNERSHIP
Pakistan's newest opening pair not only created individual records, as mentioned above, but also created partnership records during the series against Zimbabwe.

Highest Ever Partnership in ODIs
Fakhar and Imam added 304 runs for the opening wicket in the 4th ODI, which was only the 4th instance of 300 runs being added for any wicket in ODIs.

It was the highest partnership by any Pakistani pair in ODIs breaking Inzamam Ul Haq and Aamer Sohail's 24 year old record partnership of 263 runs against New Zealand.

It was the highest ever partnership for the opening wicket in ODIs breaking Sanath Jayasuriya and Upul Tharanga's record of 286 against England in 2006.

And it was the 4th highest ever partnership in ODIs.

Most Partnership Runs in an ODI Series
Fakhar and Imam added 704 runs during the series against Zimbabwe, which is a record for most partnership runs by a pair in a bilateral ODI series. They broke the record of 590 runs set by their own countrymen - Imran Farhat and Yasir Hameed - against New Zealand in 2003-04.
When non-bilateral series, including World Cups and Multi Nation Tournaments, are considered then Fakhar and Imam's tally behind only Tillekaratne Dilshan's and Upul Tharanga's 800 partnership runs scored during World Cup 2011.

Best Opening Pair for Pakistan
It is way too early to consider Fakhar and Imam in the same league as Saeed Anwar and Aamer Sohail, the best opening combination Pakistan has ever had in ODIs.

However, they have had a dream run of late and they are well on course to writing their own history down. The similarities are uncanny and I have no doubts that this left handed duo will take Pakistan to great heights.

They already have the most century opening partnerships for Pakistan and you can feel it that there are more to come!

THE ROCK SOLID BABAR AZAM
The third part of this trinity is Babar Azam who till very recently was the best batsman in Pakistan's XI. Now Fakhar is strongly challenging him for that label.

Babar has been Pakistan's leading run scorer in ODIs for the past few years, and he showed again why he is one of the world's best with a perfectly timed century in the final ODI against Zimbabwe.

Highest Frequency of ODI Centuries
That was his 8th ODI hundred in his 44th ODI innings. Only Hashim Amla scored 8 ODI centuries quicker than this, and he managed them in 43 innings.

Among all batsmen with at least 5 ODI centuries, Babar Azam has the best frequency of scoring ODI hundreds in the world. His current rate of 5.5 is better than Kohli's and Amla's.

And among these batsmen with the highest frequencies, Babar has the second best ODI average, behind only Kohli.

He also has one of the best 50-100 conversion ratios - in fact he is the only one with a conversion ratio of over 1.

Fastest to 2,000 ODI Runs
Babar requires another 27 runs to reach 2,000 ODI runs. While he can't break Hashim Amla's record of 40 innings to reach the milestone, he can equal Pakistan's record, which is also the second fastest, held by Zaheer Abbas who got to 2,000 ODI runs in 45 innings.

THE PAKISTANI TRINITY
What is fascinating about this Pakistani trinity is that the records set by Fakhar for fastest to 1,000 runs and by Babar for fastest to 8 ODI centuries among Pakistan batsmen can really be broken by their third partner in crime - Imam Ul Haq!

He has 544 runs in 9 ODI innings. What is another 456 runs in 8 innings?

He has 4 ODI centuries in 9 innings. What is another 4 in another 33-34 innings?

Pakistan have found quite a combination here.

We all fondly talk about the 90s and the superstar team Pakistan had then. I feel this team is close. Its not there, but Pakistan have not had a better ODI team than this one in this century, and this team has totally shown the potential of being a champion one!

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Younis Khan is the greatest test batsman produced by Pakistan. Even though less talented than Javed Miandad, Inzamam Ul Haq, and Mohammad Yousuf, Younis Khan showed what sheer hard work, dedication, and determination can produce.

His numbers, which you can see in detail below, speak volumes of his contribution to Pakistan cricket. Beyond the numbers, his support to captains, guidance to younger batsmen, ability to build partnerships, and achievements as a fielder make him one of the best cricketers ever to play the game.

Here is a look at Younis in Numbers...

PAKISTANI COLOSSUS
He could have finished with the best average as well if he did not have an indifferent last test series, but the gap between Younis and the next best in terms of runs (Miandad) and centuries (Inzamam) is quite significant.

Some of his batting feats include:

- The first batsman from Pakistan and 13th in the world to reach 10,000 Test runs.
- One of the four batsmen from Pakistan to score a triple century in Tests.
- One of 8 captains in the world to score a triple century in Tests.

WORLD CLASS CENTURY MACHINE
Only 5 batsmen in the world have scored more centuries than Younis Khan in Tests; only 2 of them scored them at a faster rate than Younis; and none of them converted their fifties into centuries better than Younis did.

With a century every 6.26 innings in test cricket, Younis has one of the best century scoring frequency in the history of test cricket.

With the fifth best conversion ratio, Younis is even better at converting his fifties into centuries.

GREAT MATCH WINNER
For Pakistan, no one scored more runs or more centuries than Younis Khan did in Test wins. He played in 3 test wins less than Inzamam Ul Haq; however scored 300 more runs and 2 more centuries than the other great match winner Pakistan produced.

Among all batsmen, Younis has the 5th best average in Test wins in the history of the game.

What is even better is Younis Khan's record in Test wins away from home - he is the second highest run scorer in away wins and has a phenomenal average of 94.2 in these wins. And these do not include wins in his home away from home; i.e. the UAE.


KING OF THE FOURTH INNINGS
Younis Khan has one of the best records in the world for the fourth innings in tests. He is among the only 6 batsmen in the world who average above 50 in the fourth innings; and no one in the history of the game has scored more test centuries in the fourth innings than Younis Khan has.


BATTING GIANT FOR ALL CONDITIONS
Younis Khan is the only batsman in the world who has scored Test centuries in 11 countries - in all 10 test playing nations and in the UAE.

It did not matter where he played and who he played against, Younis scored lots of runs.

He averages above 50 in 7 of the 11 countries that he has played Tests in; he averages less than 40 in only 2 of these countries.

He averages above 50 against 5 countries; and not lower than 38 against any opposition.

Younis is the fifth highest run scorer in Tests away from home, and this does not include his test runs scored in the UAE. Needless to say, no one from Pakistan has scored more runs than Younis in foreign conditions.

There is no doubt in my mind that Younis Khan is the greatest test cricketer ever produced by Pakistan. There are very few Pakistan test records that he does not own. Those that don't belong to him, will be his very soon. He holds a few world records as well, and with the way he is going, he will make some more for sure.



1. Pakistan's Best Test Batsman

Younis Khan already has more test centuries than any other batsman from Pakistan; and 5 more than the next best tally of 25 by Inzamam. He is only 18 runs away from becoming the leading run scorer for Pakistan in test cricket; a record that has been held by Javed Miandad for over 2 decades. Younis is currently third on the list in terms of runs, but in terms of average he is well above the rest.



His unbeaten 171 that led Pakistan to a historic victory over Sri Lanka was Younis' 11th score of 150 or more, which is the highest number of 150+ scores for Pakistan in their history. He went past Javed Miandad who has 10 scores of 150 or more for Pakistan.

While Miandad's 10 innings include 6 double centuries, Younis' innings comprise 5 double centuries and 1 triple century. He is one of the only three Pakistani batsmen who have scored a triple century.

2. One of the World's Best Test Batsman

Younis is among the 10 highest run scorers in test cricket in the past 10 years. It is no surprise that he has played the least amount of tests among these 10 batsmen; significantly less at that. Among these 10 batsmen, Younis is one of the only two who average over 60; Sangakkara is the other one.


Yes, he has been better than KP, Cook, Ponting, Clarke, Kallis, and AB De Villiers in the past 10 years! Talk about being under rated!

Not only has Younis been better than his contemporaries, he has also been better than the popularly mentioned modern day great test batsmen. Here's a look at where the top 6 leading run scorers in test cricket were after 101 tests. It is so unfortunate that Younis has played only 101 tests in his 15 year career so far.


Younis has more runs than Dravid, Sachin, Ponting, and Kallis did; the same number of centuries as Sachin did; he is the only one along with Lara to have scored a triple hundred; and he has the best 50 to 100 conversion ratio among all of them.

And then all the names we hear are Sachin, Ponting. Kallis, Lara... Can you imagine where Younis would be if he played as much test cricket as these batsmen?

3. One of the Biggest Test Match Winners for Pakistan and in the World

Inzamam Ul Haq is the biggest match winner produced by Pakistan. His 4,690 runs at an average of 78 with 17 centuries in test match wins is unparalleled in Pakistan's test history. Younis Khan is not far behind and will probably end up a bigger match winner than Inzamam before his career ends.


In terms of averages among all batsmen that have scored at least 1,500 runs in test match wins for their countries, Younis Khan is right up there; behind only Sir Don Bradman, Inzamam, and Sir Gary Sobers.


4. The Best Batsman in the World in Tests away from Home

Everyone scores runs at home. Well almost everyone. A true test of a batsman comes when he plays in unfamiliar conditions away from home. In the history of test cricket, only Sachin and Dravid have scored more runs, and only Sachin has scored more centuries, than Younis has in tests away from home.


Furthermore, Younis Khan is the leading run scorer in the history of test cricket in test match wins away from home. He also has the most number of centuries in test wins away from home with his unbeaten 171 taking him past Steve Waugh's 14. And no one even comes close to him in terms of average in test wins away from home.


5. The Best Batsman in the World in 4th Innings of Tests

The 4th innings of a test match is the most difficult time to bat. The pitch has deteriorated, players have been in and out of the field for 3-4 days, and the pressure is at its peak considering that the batsmen are out there to either chase a target or save a match.

When it comes to performing in such situations, there is no one who is better at it than Younis Khan. He is the absolute king and by far the best batsman in the history of test cricket in the 4th innings.

Younis has scored 5 centuries in the 4th innings of tests, more than anyone else in the world. His 4th innings average among all batsmen who have scored at least 1,000 runs in the 4th innings is the highest in the world. He is the only batsman to average over 60 in the 4th innings in the history of test cricket.

Furthermore, Younis Khan's match winning unbeaten 171 against Sri Lanka beat his own personal 4th innings best of 131* and also created a new record for the highest score by a Pakistan batsman in the 4th innings; beating Saleem Malik's 155, which he also scored against Sri Lanka in 1997.

His 171* is also the 4th highest score ever in the 4th innings of a test in a successful chase, behind Greenidge's 214*, Morris' 182, and Bradman's and Butcher's 173*.

6. A King of Partnerships for Pakistan

Partnerships are the key to batting in international cricket. They help build strong totals, they help set targets, and they help chase down targets. And Younis Khan is the absolute king of partnerships for Pakistan.

He has now been involved in 61 century partnerships for Pakistan, which is the highest number for anyone from Pakistan.

He has added 3,137 runs at an average of 78.42 with Mohammad Yousuf, which is the most partnership runs by any Pakistan pair in tests.

He has 13 century partnerships with Misbah Ul Haq, which is the most for any Pakistan pair. He also has 9 century partnerships with Mohammad Yousuf.

Something that will never be captured by statistics is Younis Khan's impact on Pakistan's batting line up in terms of guiding younger batsmen. Fawad Alam, Azhar Ali, Asad Shafiq, and now Shan Masood have Younis Khan to thank for reaching their maiden test hundreds. Each one of those batsmen reached their maiden test century while involved in a 100 run partnership with Younis Khan.

His 242 run partnership with Shan that set up victory for Pakistan has created records and that was not Younis Khan's first 200 run partnership with a young batsmen while guiding him towards his maiden century - he also put on 200 runs with Fawad Alam and 259 runs with Asad Shafiq.

This is the impact that Younis Khan has had on Pakistan's batsmen. Not only the younger ones, but even stalwarts like Yousuf, Inzamam, and Misbah have reached many of their test centuries with Younis at the other end.

He is the absolute king of test cricket for Pakistan and undoubtedly one of the best to ever play the game.