Win Projections to be updated soon
Rawalpindi, 15 November 2025:
On a crisp Rawalpindi evening, when Babar Azam raised his bat for his 20th ODI century — his first in 807 days — there was no fist pump, no extravagant celebration. Just a quiet smile and a long look skyward. It felt less like a milestone reclaimed and more like a weight finally lifted.
Declared Player of the Match as Pakistan sealed an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka, Babar spoke with a clarity that comes from surviving a storm, not avoiding one.
He began by acknowledging the people who stood with him when the runs weren’t flowing.
“In tough times, you learn who truly supports you,” he reflected. “My fans stood with me everywhere, not only in Islamabad, but across Pakistan. Their support lifted me when the results weren’t coming.”
His tone was calm, but the journey he alluded to was anything but. Across the last series, he explained, the starts were there, the big scores were not. This hundred, he said, was the moment he had been waiting for, and working relentlessly toward.
Talking through his innings, Babar credited the partnerships that shaped Pakistan’s total.
“When the innings began, the focus was to build a base. With Fakhar, I wanted to give him as much strike as possible, he’s a match-changer and when he’s at the crease, the opposition feels it. Later, Rizwan and I planned things according to the match situation.”
But beyond tactics and timing, this hundred carried emotional weight. Asked how it felt to end an 83-innings drought, Babar exhaled.
“Whenever you score a hundred, your confidence reaches another level and today I felt that again,” he said. “It was a long period, but I never stopped working hard. I kept telling myself: I’ve done it before, I can do it again. That belief kept me going.”
He spoke candidly about the voices around him, the coaches, mentors and friends who helped him filter advice and stay grounded.
“Different people say different things, but you have to understand who is actually helping you,” he explained. “My close circle, my family, coaches like Shahid Aslam and Mansoor Rana, they’ve known me since childhood. They helped me through difficult days.”
The last two years have tested him in ways statistics can’t capture, captaincy shifts, media pressure, social media criticism. Asked whether the noise affected him, Babar was direct:
“I’ve learned to ignore things that are out of my control. My job is to play cricket. I focus on what I can do on the field.”
He was equally composed when invited to respond to critics after such a resounding innings.
“I didn’t answer them in the last two years and I won’t start today,” he said with a faint smile. “Performing is my answer.”
The conversation returned, repeatedly, to belief a theme that seems to have anchored him through this difficult stretch.
