Babar Azam celebrates 30th birthday with heartfelt wishes from teammates

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ISLAMABAD: Former Pakistan captain Babar Azam has turned 30 and fellow cricketers have been showering him with good wishes and appreciation for his indomitable determination as a sportsman.

The players are celebrating their 30th birthdays, as they rest during the second and third matches of the ongoing Test series between the Green Shirts and the Three Lions.

This is the first time the batting maestro has been dropped from the Pakistan team since his white-ball debut against Zimbabwe in Lahore in 2015 and his Test debut against the West Indies a year later.

Babar stood out with three consecutive centuries in the ODI series against West Indies in 2016.

He replaced India’s great Virat Kohli as the world’s number one ODI batsman five years later, a position he still holds and has been dethroned for some time in between.

The former captain was on top in the world two years ago, leading the team and being the top-rated batsman in all three formats.

He is still ranked fourth among T20 batsmen, but it is the longer format where his form has suffered the most and his decline has seen him drop out of the top 10 in the world.

To mark this special day in Babar’s life, fellow cricketers did not miss the opportunity to wish him well and remind him of his talent on the field.

Shadab Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf, Aamir Jamal and Salman Ali Agha are some of the players who shared their love for the former captain on social media.

Taking to Instagram, Shadab shared a photograph of himself with Babar, in which both are holding their respective green jerseys.

“Happy birthday @babarazam. May u have a great year on & off the field. Everyone knows ur batting class,” the all-rounder wrote in the caption.

Shaheen, who has also been “rested” during the Test series against England, also took to Instagram Story to convey his wishes for the batter.

He wrote: “Wishing you a great year ahead.”

Fellow cricketer Haris Rauf, who was last seen leading The Stallions in the domestic Champions One-Day Cup, wrote “Tusi great hoo” when wishing the former captain on Instagram Story.