PAK vs AUS: Not Babar Azam! Pakistan Batter Becomes 1st Cricketer To Achieve Rare Test Record

Not the premier Pakistan National Cricket Team batter Babar Azam, but the 28-year-old left-handed middle-order batsman Saud Shakeel has achieved a rare feat in Test cricket. The milestone that Saud Shakeel has reached is quite unique and not even the all-time greats like Don Bradman, Sunil Gavaskar, and Sachin Tendulkar have achieved that feat.

Saud Shakeel made his Test debut for the Pakistan National Cricket Team on December 1, 2022, against the England National Cricket Team at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium. Since then, he has played 7 more matches in the purest format of the game.

In those matches, Saud Shakeel has got the opportunity to bat in 15 innings and he has scored 927 runs with the best score of 208*. He has scored his runs at an average of 77.25 and a strike rate of 46.46, including two centuries and six half-centuries.

His most recent appearance came in the first Test of the three-match series against Australia National Cricket Team away from home at the Perth Stadium. In the match, he batted in both the innings and registered scores of 28 and 24. Although he didn’t contribute much with the bat, his performance helped him to script history.

Not Babar Azam! Saud Shakeel Becomes First Batter In History To Achieve Rare Feat

Saud Shakeel has etched his name in the history books. He has become the first batter in the 146-year history of Test cricket to score at least 20 runs in 15 consecutive innings from the start of the career. With this record, he surpassed Sir Everton Weekes, who managed a streak of 14 innings.

This is not the first historic milestone achieved by the batsman in his small Test career. He registered his seventh half-century in the second Test between Pakistan and Sri Lanka in Colombo in July 2023. This made him the first batter in Test history to score a fifty in each of the first seven Tests.

With this record, he went past Sunil Gavaskar, Basil Butcher, Saeed Ahmad, and Bert Sutcliffe. The aforementioned batters scored fifty or more runs in each of their first six Test matches.

Talking about the match between Australia and Pakistan, the Aussies absolutely dominated the game. The World Test Champions entered the clash as favorites and showcased sheer class.

Australia won the toss and elected to bat first in the match. The opening duo of David Warner and Usman Khawaja made sure that the decision at the toss was a good one as they stitched up a century partnership.

Warner, who is playing his last Test series, smashed a spectacular century. He scored 164 runs off 211 balls, with 16 fours and 4 sixes. Other batters also chipped in with great contributions and they posted a huge total of 487 runs on the board.

While bowling they bundled out Pakistan for 271 in their first innings. Despite having a good lead they didn’t enforce the follow-on. Australia came to bat again and riding on the half-centuries from Usman Khawaja and Mitchell Marsh they posted 233/5d on the board and gave a target of 450 runs to Pakistan.

In the last innings, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood bagged three wickets each while Nathan Lyon and Pat Cummins picked three wickets combined to bowl out Pakistan for 89 to earn a huge 360-run victory.