BabarAzam

Babar Azam gives Pakistan's batting its anchor, and his influence stretches past the national side into the franchise game at home. He represents Peshawar Zalmi and holds the Sitara-i-Imtiaz. Within the country he is the innings' organising figure, the batter a chase is built around; internationally he is one of the reasons a Pakistan fixture draws attention, a player whose output shapes how a contest unfolds.

Batting is his trade, and the Twenty20 international returns he has compiled for Pakistan carry the weight of it: 145 matches, 4,596 runs, an average of 38.94. Those numbers put him in the middle of Pakistan's planning rather than at its edge. The remit is identical at Peshawar Zalmi, so franchise duty and international duty ask the same thing of him.