Babar Azam in England: A Complete Look at His Record Across Formats

There is something about Babar Azam's batting that has always looked suited to English conditions. His technique is built around balance and control. He has a compact setup, stays relatively still at the crease and is comfortable playing the ball late. His ability to get close to the line of the ball, particularly outside off stump, allows him to use the pace of English pitches rather than fighting against it. Once he settles, his timing through the covers and square of the wicket becomes one of his biggest weapons.

His relationship with English conditions has also developed over time. He first arrived as a young international in 2016. Since then, he has played in England in every international format, featured in an ICC Champions Trophy and a World Cup, scored a memorable Test fifty at Lord's and produced one of the finest ODI innings of his career at Edgbaston.

Here is his journey, tour by tour.

2016 ODI Series

Babar's first ODI series in England came in 2016, when Pakistan played five matches against England.

He scored 122 runs in five innings, with scores of 40, 30, 9, 12 and 31, averaging 24.40.

The numbers were modest, but the experience was important. Babar was only 21 and was still learning how to deal with English conditions at international level. This was the beginning of a relationship with English cricket that would become much more productive in the years ahead.

2016 T20I

Babar's first T20I in England came at Old Trafford in September 2016.

He made 15* from 11 balls as Pakistan chased down England's 135 with nine wickets in hand. It was also an important moment personally, as this was Babar's first T20I appearance against England.

It was only a brief innings, but it marked the start of his T20I journey in English conditions.

2017 Champions Trophy

A year later, Babar returned to England for the Champions Trophy, and this time he was part of a Pakistan side that would go all the way to the title.

He scored 133 runs in five innings at 44.33, with two not-outs. His scores were 8, 31, 10, 38 and 46*.

His 38 against England in the semi-final at Cardiff* was particularly valuable. Pakistan chased down England's 211 with eight wickets in hand, and Babar helped see the chase through alongside Mohammad Hafeez.

In the final at The Oval, Babar scored 46 from 52 balls as Pakistan defeated India by 180 runs to lift the Champions Trophy.

It was not a tournament dominated by Babar's numbers, but it was his first major ICC success in England.

2018 Test Series

This is where one of the most memorable chapters of Babar's England story began.

At Lord's in the first Test, Babar produced a beautifully controlled 68 from 120 balls. He struck 10 fours and was Pakistan's top scorer in the innings.

Unfortunately, the innings ended in painful circumstances. A Ben Stokes delivery struck him on the left forearm and Babar had to retire hurt. A scan confirmed a fracture, ruling him out of the remainder of the two-Test series.

The scorecard records him as retired hurt on 68, rather than technically not out. Still, the innings remains one of the highlights of his career in England because of the quality of the batting before the injury.

2019 T20I

Babar returned to England in 2019 in excellent white-ball form.

In the one-off T20I at Cardiff, he scored 65 from 42 balls, striking five fours and three sixes at a strike rate of 154.76.

Pakistan posted 173, although England eventually chased it down with four balls to spare.

It was an impressive T20 innings and another indication that Babar was becoming increasingly comfortable with the pace and bounce of English pitches.

2019 ODI Series

The ODI series that followed was another strong chapter.

Babar's scores were 51, 15, 115 and 80 in the four matches in which he batted. The first ODI was abandoned without a ball being bowled.

That gave him 261 runs in four innings, including a century, at an average of 65.25.

The highlight was his 115 from 112 balls at Southampton, where he played a major role in Pakistan's huge total of 361.

His 80 in the final ODI at Leeds was another substantial contribution.

This series was an important preparation for the World Cup that followed. Babar was not merely surviving in England anymore. He was consistently producing major scores.

2019 World Cup

The 2019 World Cup was arguably the biggest statement Babar made in England.

He scored 474 runs in eight innings at 67.71, with a century and three fifties. It was the highest World Cup aggregate by a Pakistani batter at the time.

His scores were:

22, 63, 30, 48, 69, 101, 45 and 96.*

The unbeaten 101 against New Zealand was particularly important. Pakistan won by six wickets, with Babar anchoring the chase.

The tournament demonstrated something different from his earlier England appearances. Babar was now capable of building an entire World Cup campaign around his consistency. He wasn't producing one isolated performance. He was repeatedly scoring against different attacks and in different match situations.

2020 Test Series

The 2020 Test tour was perhaps the clearest demonstration of Babar's Test technique in England.

Across the three Tests, he scored 195 runs in five innings at 48.75.

His scores were:

69, 5, 47, 11 and 63*

The 69 at Old Trafford was a patient and technically sound innings against a strong England attack. He then made 47 in the second Test at Southampton before producing an unbeaten 63 in the second innings of the third Test.

That 63* was particularly significant because Babar batted for 92 balls and helped Pakistan save themselves from further trouble in a match heavily affected by rain. The PCB scorecard records him unbeaten on 63.

Add his 68 at Lord's in 2018 and Babar's Test record in England becomes particularly impressive.

2020 T20 Series

The three-match T20I series in 2020 produced 77 runs in two innings for Babar at an average of 38.50.

His scores were 56 and 21, with Pakistan's third match seeing Babar not bat because the innings ended before he was required.

The 56 from 44 balls at Manchester was his standout performance. It contained seven fours and came at a strike rate of 127.27.

It was not his biggest T20 series in England, but it added more experience to a record that was already growing across formats.

2021 ODI Series

Then came one of Babar's finest individual performances in English conditions.

In the three-match ODI series, he scored 177 runs in three innings at 59.00, with scores of 0, 19 and 158.

The 158 at Edgbaston was the defining moment.

Babar faced 139 balls, hit 14 fours and four sixes, and became the fastest batter at the time to reach 14 ODI centuries, doing so in his 81st innings.

Pakistan eventually lost the match, but Babar's innings was outstanding. It showed how far his ODI batting had evolved since that first England tour in 2016.

The young batter who had struggled for consistency in 2016 was now producing a near-perfect ODI innings against an England attack on an international stage.

2021 T20 Series

Babar was equally influential with the bat in the T20I series that followed.

He scored 118 runs in three innings at 39.33, with scores of 85, 22 and 11.

The 85 from 49 balls at Nottingham was the standout innings. He struck eight fours and three sixes and scored at a strike rate of 173.46.

It was a good example of how Babar's batting was changing. His traditional strengths in timing and placement were still there, but he was increasingly able to access a higher gear when the format demanded it.

2024 T20 Series

Babar returned to England in 2024 as Pakistan's white-ball captain.

The first T20I in Leeds was abandoned without a ball being bowled. In the second match at Edgbaston, Babar scored 32 from 26 balls.

He then made 36 in the fourth T20I at The Oval, giving him 68 runs in two innings at an average of 34.00 for the series.

These were not the sort of numbers that defined his earlier England campaigns, but they added to his experience of playing international cricket in the country.

Overall Impact

Babar's England story is really a story of progression.

In 2016, he was a young batter learning the conditions, scoring 122 runs in the ODI series and making 15* in his first T20I.

In 2017, he became part of a Champions Trophy-winning Pakistan team.

In 2018, he produced 68 at Lord's before an unfortunate injury ended his series.

Then came 2019, when his record reached another level. He scored 261 runs in the ODI series, 65 in the one off T20I and then 474 runs at 67.71 in the World Cup.

In 2020, he showed that his technique could stand up to Test cricket in England, scoring 195 runs at 48.75 across five innings.

In 2021, he produced perhaps his most spectacular English innings, the magnificent 158 at Edgbaston, while also scoring 85 in the T20I series.

That progression says a lot about Babar as a batsman

His game is not based purely on power. It is built around balance, timing, patience and the ability to wait for the right ball. Those qualities are particularly valuable in England, where the ball can move through the air and off the surface.

His numbers in England reflect that development. More importantly, they show that he has succeeded there in different roles and different formats.

For Pakistan, that experience matters. Babar has already faced English conditions as a young player, as a Test batter, as a World Cup performer and as a captain. He knows the grounds, the pitches and the challenge of facing England's bowlers.

And that is what makes another Test tour of England so interesting. The conditions will test his technique again, but Babar is no longer the 21-year-old who first arrived in England in 2016.

He returns with years of experience, some of the best innings of his career behind him and a record that shows he has repeatedly found a way to score runs in England.