Scoring five centuries in five different countries is a thing of honour for me: Fawad Alam

An endlessly patient and resilient man, Pakistan’s Fawad Alam has taken the world by storm over the last year. Having made his Test debut ages ago in 2009, Alam fell out of the selector’s radar after merely three Tests.

He continued to be on the sidelines, doing the hard yards in the domestic circuit until his name returned inside the discussion rooms. Making a comeback after 11 long years in the Test setup, Alam recorded a duck against England, but keeping up the spirit that he is known for, he grabbed the coming chances to establish himself as Pakistan’s mainstay in little time.

Ever since his return to international cricket, Alam has scored centuries against New Zealand, South Africa, Zimbabwe and recently West Indies, three of them in foreign conditions, keeping aside the one against South Africa. In a recent chat with Cricket Pakistan, Alam opened up regarding his batting form and other things.

“I will try to deliver and perform wherever I can for my country in the future”

“When you play first-class or domestic cricket for a long time, then you encounter many pressure situations. In domestic cricket, wickets usually fall early, and a batsman has to bat in a pressure situation. That is why you don’t panic [if you have that experience]. A player needs to handle any situation whether early wickets have fallen or not. A player has to avail these chances to prove that they are getting better. I try to fight it out and deliver regardless of the situation or the conditions,” Alam said.

“I am really grateful to Allah [for my recent performances]. I always try to perform for my country. I always try to give performances that benefit the team. I hope I can keep performing the way I am currently. Scoring five centuries in five different countries is a thing of honour for me. As a player you want to perform to the best of your abilities for your country. I will try to deliver and perform wherever I can for my country in the future as well,” he added.

“The partnership between me and Babar changed the match”

Alam was the team’s saviour alongside Babar Azam in the second Test against West Indies, where he recorded his fifth Test ton, a 124-run knock off 213 balls, with 17 boundaries. It was his patient knock en route to a match-changing partnership of 158 runs for the fourth wicket that allowed Pakistan to post a challenging first-innings score of 302/9 before winning the game by 109 runs to level the series 1-1.

“Babar [Azam] is our world number one batsman. We all know his class in all three formats. The partnership between me and Babar changed the match and the team really needed it at that time. It brought us back into the match and then we went on to win the Test. I don’t think there was a big partnership throughout the two Tests,” he said.

“When you are batting with the number one batsman in the world, you get to learn a lot. We knew that if we kept standing in the middle we will get runs and that there will be a time when run-scoring will become easy. But you have to fight it out to get to that stage. Me and Babar were talking about staying at the crease and capitalizing when the time was right,” he concluded.