Babar Azam reached a great milestone on the way to playing an innings of 78 runs on the first day of the Karachi Test. The Pakistan captain became the fifth batsman in cricket history to score fifty or more innings 23 times in a calendar year.
On the day of Babar’s record innings, Pakistan scored 304 runs in the first innings of the Karachi Test against England. Batting in the last part of the day, England picked up 7 runs for 1 wicket.
England won the series in the first two matches of the three-Test series. Pakistan did not get off to a good start in what turned out to be a ‘dead-rubber’ match. Two openers Abdullah Shafiq and Shan Masood returned within 46 runs. Babar made a partnership of 71 runs for the third wicket with Azhar Ali, who came down to play the last Test of his career. Azhar scored 45 runs before being caught by the wicketkeeper off Ollie Robinson.
Read More: India beat Bangladesh by 188 Runs in Chittagong Test
Babar brought up the 25th fifty of his Test career off 74 balls. This is his 23rd fifty in three editions in 2022. England’s Joe Root (2016) and India’s Sourav Ganguly (1999) have 23 fifties in one year in international cricket.
However, former Lankan batsman Kumar Sangakkara holds the record for most 50+ innings with 17 fifties and eight centuries in 2014. Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting (2005) is second with 24 fifty+ innings.
Babar’s 23rd fifty-over innings was halted by a run-out in a misunderstanding with Agha Salman. Caught by the spin of Jack Leach, Salman played an innings of 56 runs off 93 balls.