Babar Azam's half-century drought in Tests approaches second anniversary

It was a field day for Pakistan as they racked up 328 for the loss of four wickets on Day 1 of their first Test of the three-match series against England in Multan. Opening batter, Abdullah Shafique, and red-ball skipper, Shan Masood, piled on respective centuries as they positioned the hosts on a dominant platform ahead of the second day of the game.

However, ace batter Babar Azam's dry spell continued as he registered yet another subpar score. On a track where nothing much seemed to have worked for the English bowling line-up who found it hard to not only take wickets, but also contain the Pakistani batters, Babar fell for a 71-ball 30-run knock. Chris Woakes, making a Test return to Asia after a whopping span of eight years, pinned Babar plumb in front after a series of deliveries of drawing him towards his off-stump. 

Babar went up for the review right away, but it was a decision prompted more out of hope than anything else, as the ball-tracker showed three reds for him to make a disappointing walk back to the pavilion. Other than the fact that the pitch was an absolute belter to bat on, what would compound the dismay in Babar's mind would be the fact that only nine deliveries were left before Stumps. With this dismissal, Babar's wait for a score in excess of 50 in the longest format draws nearer to a two-year anniversary. 

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Babar sits atop undesirable list 

Babar, who scored his last half-century in Tests in December 2022, has gone 16 innings without a 50-plus score since the start of 2023. Others in the directory include Shreyas Iyer with 12, KS Bharat with 10, James McCollum with 8, and three batters on 7.

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Interestingly, December 2022 was also the last time Babar scored a century in the longest format. Babar, who used to average well above 50 before this lean phase started, has seen his average dip to 44.51 as of now.