Babar Hayat scored an unbeaten 53 off 30 at a strike rate of 176.67 balls to chase down a total of 151 against Kuwait in the 2022 Asia Cup qualification match on August 23. The innings included 2 fours and 5 sixes as Hong Kong won the game by 8 wickets.  Hayat is also part of the Hong Kong team which will face India at the 2022 Asia Cup in the United Arab Emirates.

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Who is Babar Hayat?

Babar Hayat is an international cricketer of Pakistani origin who plays for the Hong Kong international cricket team. He is a right-handed batsman and former national team captain. Hayat was born on January 5, 1992, in the Hazro Tehsil of Attock District in Punjab Province of Pakistan.  

On March 16, 2014, Babar played in his debut T20I match against Nepal where he scored just 20 runs in 25 balls. On May 1, 2014, he made his One Day International debut against Afghanistan in the 2014 ACC Premier League. He became the first Hong Kong player to score a century in a T20I match against Oman in the 2016 Asia Cup Qualifier in February 2016.

In that match, he scored 122 which was the highest ever T20I score by any player in a T20I’s second innings, and second in the list for the highest ever T20I score in a losing cause, just behind Australia’s Shane Watson’s undefeated 124.

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When he made 214 not out against Papua New Guinea in the 2015-17 ICC Intercontinental Cup, he became the first batsman for Hong Kong to score a double century in first-class cricket. Hayat was named captain of Hong Kong’s squad for the 2018’s Asia Cup Qualifier Tournament but days prior to the beginning of the event, he stepped down from that post to make way for youngster Anshuman Rath in the team. 

He was named to the country’s team for that year’s ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup. In the event, he scored 136 runs in three matches and was the team’s leading run-scorer.

On June 3, 2018, he was selected in the players’ draft for the Vancouver Knights in the first-ever Global T20 Canada tournament. He was chosen to play for the Brampton Wolves Franchise team in the 2019 Global T20 Canada tournament in June 2019.

Subsequently, He was named to Hong Kong’s squad for the 2019 ICC World Cricket League Division Two in April 2019.

Overall in his career, Hayat has scored 784 runs in 22 ODIs with a high score of 89 and has 8 fifty-plus scores. While in T20I, the player has amassed a total of 758 runs in 32 matches with the best score of 122.