He made his Test debut for Pakistan against the West Indies in Dubai on 13 October 2016 and scored 69 runs in his first innings. He was the first player to score a fifty on his Test debut in a day/night Test.

On 19 January 2017, in the third ODI against Australia, Azam became the joint-fastest player to score 1,000 runs in ODIs and the fastest for Pakistan in his 21st innings. He scored a century in the fifth ODI, which was only the second century by a Pakistani batsman in Australia after Zaheer Abbas in 1981. He also entered the top 10 batsmen rankings in ODIs for the first time.

Sarfaraz Ahmed replaced Azhar Ali as Pakistan’s ODI captain against the West Indies. Babar Azam scored an unbeaten 125 in the second ODI of the three-match series at Providence Stadium, Guyana. Along with Imad Wasim, he put on an unbeaten 99-run partnership, helping Pakistan reach a total of 282.

In the 2017 Champions Trophy, Azam scored 46 off 52 balls in the final against India. After the tournament, the World XI team played three T20Is in Pakistan, where Azam was the top run-getter with 179 runs. In the first T20I at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore, he scored 86 off 52 balls, winning his first Man of the Match award in T20Is and helping Pakistan win by 20 runs. He scored 45 and 48 in the next two matches.

In September 2017, he had a poor Test series against Sri Lanka, scoring only 39 runs across two Tests. In the second ODI, he became the fastest batsman to score his 7th ODI century and the first to score five consecutive centuries in one country. He scored 30 and 69* in the next two innings while chasing.

He was the leading run-scorer for Pakistan in 2016 in ODIs and T20Is with 872 and 352 runs respectively. At the 2017 PCB awards, he was named Pakistan’s ODI Player of the Year and was also listed in the ICC World ODI XI for the first time.

Pakistan toured New Zealand in 2018, and Babar was an automatic ODI selection. He scored only 31 runs in five innings, averaging 6.2, as Pakistan were whitewashed 5–0. He performed well in the T20I series, scoring 109 runs and helping Pakistan win 2–1. He became the no. 1 T20I batsman, briefly dropped to no. 3, then regained the top spot after a successful series against West Indies. His best performance came with an unbeaten 97 in the second T20I, winning Man of the Match. He finished the series as the leading run-scorer with 165 runs at an average of 82.50 and strike rate of 148.64, winning Man of the Series as Pakistan won 3–0.

During a Test against England in May 2018, Azam was struck on the arm by a bouncer from Ben Stokes while batting on 68, resulting in a fracture of his left wrist and broken forearm. After recovering, he returned against Zimbabwe in July for a five-match ODI series, scoring 184 runs in four innings, including 106 off 76 balls in the final ODI.

In September 2018, he was selected for the 2018 Asia Cup in the UAE. Playing his first Asia Cup, he scored 156 runs at an average of 31.20 in five matches. In November 2018, in the second Test against New Zealand, Azam scored his first Test century.cricket.

Just before the World Cup, Pakistan played against England in a one-off T20I and a 5-match ODI series to prepare for the tournament. In the T20I fixture, he scored 65 from 42 balls before getting run out. In the 5-match ODI series, he ended up as the joint leading run-scorer, scoring 277 runs including a century and two half-centuries, going into the World Cup with runs under his belt. On 26 June 2019, in the match against New Zealand, Azam became the fastest batsman for Pakistan, in terms of innings, to score 3,000 runs in ODIs (68). In the same match, he also scored his 10th century in ODIs, finishing 101 not out, with Pakistan winning by 6 wickets. With this century, he became the first middle-order batsman from Pakistan to hit a century in a World Cup match after 32 years. A week later, in the match against Bangladesh, Babar broke Javed Miandad’s record of the most runs by a Pakistani batsman in a single edition of the World Cup, scoring 474 runs in 8 innings.