Has Babar Azam’s bat gone bad? The player who is considered the best batsman of the 2020s has been craving for a century for a long time. It is not that this is a matter of any particular format. This Pakistani legend has not been able to score a century in any format for more than a year. It has been 20 months since Babar scored a century in Test cricket. He has not even been able to score a fifty in the last 12 innings.
When the match between Pakistan and Bangladesh started in Rawalpindi, Babar Azam’s fans were hoping that he would complete 4000 runs of his Test career in this match. He needs 102 runs for this. Babar could not even open the account. Now there are two days left in the match. Who knows, Babar may do something amazing in the second innings. At present, the reality is that he last scored a century in Test cricket on 26 December 2022. Then he scored 161 runs against New Zealand in Karachi. After this he has played Test series against Sri Lanka and Australia. Now he is playing Test match against Bangladesh. The wait for the century is not ending.
Babar Azam scored his last Test century in December 2022. Since then, he has played 7 more Tests. Babar scored 253 runs in 12 innings of these matches. His average was 21.08 and highest score was 39. From this, one can guess how much the century is upset with Babar.
Last century in ODI against Nepal
Babar Azam’s last century in ODI cricket also came about a year ago. He last scored a century in the 50-over format against Nepal in Multan on 30 August 2023. He then played an innings of 151 runs. Babar has played 12 ODI innings since then. During this, his best score has been 74 runs.
Last T20 century scored 16 months ago
It has been more than a year since Babar Azam scored a century in T20 International as well. Babar last scored a century in this format against New Zealand on 15 April 2023. Babar remained unbeaten after scoring 101 runs then. Since then, he has played 22 T20I matches at home and abroad, but has not been able to score more than 75 runs even once.
Last century in all three formats at home
One of the special features of Babar Azam’s centuries was that he last crossed the 100-run mark in all three formats on home ground. Due to this, critics are also calling him ‘home lion’.
Comparison with Virat Kohli is wrong
Fans calling Babar Azam the next Virat Kohli are also trying to link his being out of form with the King. Babar’s fans say that Kohli has also gone through a bad phase. While saying this, they forget that even when Virat Kohli could not score a century for almost 3 years, his average was much better than Babar. Whereas Babar’s average in Tests has come down to 21.08 since his last Test. Therefore, this comparison of Babar and Virat does not seem appropriate.
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