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England vs Pakistan third Test match is currently ongoing at Edgbaston, Birmingham. Babar Azam’s side are just away from another humiliating series loss away from home in the traditional format of the game. During the match, Babar achieved a milestone as Pakistan’s captain; however, he failed to reach his hundred in the oldest format as his drought continued.
Pakistan have just won one Test match in three years away from home, which came against the West Indies last month. They have already lost the series against the Three Lions, as they lost the first two games by an innings and 103 runs, and then 194 runs in the second game. They are showcasing a fight in the third game.
Babar Azam achieves rare milestone
During the third Test match, skipper Babar Azam brought up his 2,000 Test runs in the World Test Championship (WTC) as a captain. He became the fourth captain to achieve the unique milestone. Babar Azam is the fifth Pakistan captain to reach 2,000 Test runs, after Misbah-ul-Haq (4,214), Imran Khan (2,408), Inzamam-ul-Haq (2,397) and Javed Miandad (2,354).
He is the youngest among the five batters at 31 years and 331 days, and in 43 innings, he is the third-fastest behind Inzamam (40) and Miandad (42). He achieved the record in the WTC cycle, which neither Virat Kohli nor Rohit Sharma could achieve as the leader of the India National Cricket Team.
Babar Azam is just behind Dimuth Karunaratne, who has scored 2160 runs, and is only the second Asian batter in the list to cross the 2,000-run mark. He has scored 2017* runs with an average just over 50 as a captain. He joined the elite club alongside Misbah-ul-Haq, becoming only the second Pakistan captain to complete 7,000 runs in international cricket.
Most runs as a captain in WTC:
Joe Root — 3060
Ben Stokes — 2182
Dimuth Karunaratne — 2160
Babar Azam — 2017
Kraigg Brathwaite —1994
Virat Kohli — 1349
Tom Latham — 1338
Rohit Sharma — 1254
Dhananjaya de Silva — 1130
Najmul Hossain Shanto — 1130
Babar Azam's century drought continues
He scored 76 runs and was unlucky with his dismissal in the match; whether to play the ball or to leave it as the ball went down the leg side, with Jordan Cox taking the catch. After failing to register a hundred, his drought continued as the Pakistan captain has now gone 40 innings without scoring a Test hundred, which is 1,355 days.
This is an unwanted record for Babar, as his previous 100 had come way back in December 2022 against New Zealand. He played an excellent innings of 76 runs on Friday during Pakistan’s second-innings fightback. He smashed 11 fours and 1 six in his gritty innings in Birmingham.
Pakistan fights back against England
The Men in Green have showcased a fightback in the second innings after they were bowled out for 133 runs and England had a lead of 320 runs. Shan Masood and Azan Awais stitched a 125-run partnership for the third wicket as the two batters soaked in the pressure after they were 0/2 at one stage.
Shan Masood played a knock of 95 runs and fell short of a well-deserved hundred by just five runs; the young Awais scored 59 runs. Now they trail by 18 runs with five wickets in hand.
