Babar Azam gets honored with Sitara-E-Imtiaz, Pakistan’s 3rd highest national honour

Babar Azam (Source - Twitter)

Pakistani skipper Babar Azam has been awarded the country’s 3rd highest award and one of the most prestigious civilian honour, Sitara-E-Imtiaz. The award is basically given to the people who did some exemplary work for the nation’s prestige in the field of national interest, world peace and culture.

Babar has been serving as the sports ambassador for Pakistan for many years. He called it an ‘immense pleasure to receive the award in front of his parents. The 28-year-old Babar becomes the youngest to achieve this honour.

“Immense honour to have received Sitara-e-Imtiaz in the presence of my mother and father. This award is for my parents, fans and the people of Pakistan” Babar wrote on his social media.

It was announced in August 14, 2022, that Babar will be conferring with the country’s third-highest civilian honour.

Babar Azam has been one of the pivotal players for Pakistan over the years. He made his debut in May 2015 in an ODI match against Zimbabwe. His performance made him earn the spot ni Tests and T20Is as well in 2016.

He also recently won the award for the ODI player of the year for 2022, and also the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for the Men’s cricketer of the year for 2022.

Under Babar Azam's stint, Pakistan defeated India in 20-20 World Cup

He was appointed as the captain of the National team in November 2020. Under his leadership, Pakistan have made it into the finals of the 2022 Asia Cup and the 20-20 World Cup in Australia. He also became the first-ever Pakistani skipper to defeat India in the 20-20 World Cup in 2021 as Pakistan won that historic game by 10 wickets. The Shaheens also qualified for the semi-finals of that edition after winning all five matches in the group stage.

Babar has appeared in 47 Tests, 95 ODIs and 99 T20Is for Pakistan till now, where he has amassed 11864 runs across all the formats. He is also the leading run-scorer in the Pakistan Super League with 2935 runs from 79 matches with an average of 43.80 including 28 half-centuries and one hundred,