Rarely, if ever, does Babar Azam go under the radar in Pakistan. It was only natural, then, that he stole the headlines in Qualifier 1 of the 2026 PSL with a second century of the season.
After that game, Babar’s season tally stands at 588 runs, the joint-most by anyone ever in a single edition of the league. Peshawar Zalmi have lost just one of their 11 games, and now have the chance to win their first trophy since 2017.
Babar himself, mercifully, has looked a far cry from the batter he did over the past 12 months or so. He was in Pakistan’s T20 World Cup squad, but not without being told by head coach Mike Hesson that his strike rate in the Powerplay was not what the team needed. Against Namibia, after Pakistan had gotten off to a good start, he was not required to bat at all.
What has dogged Pakistan’s star throughout his lean patch has been an air of rigidity. “He’s very much in his own world with his batting… not open to much suggestions,” Herschelle Gibbs said in 2022, after having worked with him at Karachi Kings. Last year, Shoaib Akhtar called Babar a player with “no intention to improve”.
The discussion around him in the T20 format has always been related to his strike rate. This season, it is a personal-best of 146.3. But in 2023 and 2024, Babar put up 500-plus run seasons while striking at 145 and 142. In that sense, it would seem this is simply a return to what his peak looks like.
But, there is a key difference which shows that this PSL season, he may slowly be shedding those undesirable tags from Gibbs and Akhtar.
Marked improvement: Babar Azam in the 2026 Pakistan Super League
In his last two bumper seasons, there was a rather predictable pattern to Babar’s innings. He would start strong against quick bowling in the Powerplay – striking at 155 and 151 respectively in this phase in 2023 and 2024. He combined this with rather exceptional wicket preservation, averaging 70 in the former and not being dismissed by a pacer in the Powerplay in the latter.
Essentially, Babar would do well with pace on and the field up, but could be tied down when slower bowlers came on. And when they found their length, he had no answer, even in his most productive period – the majority of his boundaries came only when they dropped it short, and he could get back to pull or cut.
That has changed significantly this year. Babar has begun to find a way to score even when spinners land it on that in-between length.