PAK vs NZ: Babar Azam Slams Ricky Ponting, Brian Lara's Long-Standing Record

PAK vs NZ: Babar Azam Slams Ricky Ponting, Brian Lara’s Long-Standing Record. It hasn’t been the greatest of times for Pakistan cricket or captain Babar Azam with the team suffering a humiliating whitewash at home against England, which finally led to the resignation of Ramiz Raja as PCB chairman and the Muhammad Wasim-led selection committee.

Contents

Babar Azam Breaks Record Of Most Fifty-plus Scores In A Calendar Year Babar Azam Joins The List Of Legendary Batters After Scoring Eighth Century Of The Calendar Year

Babar’s leadership’s potency was also questioned. But on the first day of the first Test against New Zealand in Karachi, he silenced the doubters with an outstanding century.

Babar Azam Breaks Record Of Most Fifty-plus Scores In A Calendar Year

Pakistan had a disastrous start on Monday, losing three wickets for just 48 runs in 15 overs. Tim Southee quickly terminated Saud Shakeel and Babar’s partnership of 62 runs, despite the fact that Shakeel seemed to be making a fight of it.

Pakistan really needed a team, but their captain in particular needed to take the initiative. In addition to receiving assistance from the outgoing captain Sarfaraz Ahmed, who was taking the field in his maiden Test in almost four years following his last match against South Africa in 2019, Babar also put up a valiant fight against the New Zealand assault to score his eighth Test century.

With the excellent hundred, he surpassed Ricky Ponting’s record for the most fifty-plus runs in a calendar year in international cricket. Before Babar in Karachi eclipsed the record by scoring his 25th fifty-plus score, Ponting’s 2005 accomplishment of 24 such scores survived for 17 long years. The sum includes eight hundreds and seventeen fifty-dollar amounts.

Babar Azam Joins The List Of Legendary Batters After Scoring Eighth Century Of The Calendar Year

He beat Graeme Smith, Mahela Jayawardene, Australian Steve Smith, and West Indies legend Brian Lara on the list of captains with the most international hundreds in a calendar year with these eight centuries. Babar is third on the all-time list because of his eight centuries in 2022.

With this inning, Babar Azam also passed former cricketer and current team batting coach Mohammad Yousuf to become the greatest test run-getter in 2022. His cumulative score of 2542 runs across the three formats this year is the best by any Pakistani hitter.