While Pakistan lost the historic Test series against Australia, Pakistani players did give a tough time to the Kangaroos during the three-Test series.
Despite criticism from fans and cricket pundits on team selection and the “absence of winning recipe”, some of the players managed to outshine others.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) shared the list of the Pakistan star performers.
Pakistan’s 🌟 Performers vs Aus#PAKvAUS pic.twitter.com/GJJtbU9JwX
— Pakistan Cricket (@TheRealPCB) March 26, 2022
Among these players were skipper Babar Azam, Abdullah Shafique, Imam-ul-Haq, Azhar Ali, Shaheen Shah Afridi, and Nauman Ali.
Let’s take a look at their performance:
- Abdullah Shafique — 397 runs
- Babar Azam — 390 runs
- Imam-ul-Haq — 370 runs
- Azhar Ali — 300 runs
- Shaheen Shah Afridi — nine wickets
- Nauman Ali — nine wickets
During the final Test, Veteran Azhar Ali completed his 7,000th Test run, joining an elite list of Pakistan batsmen.
Meanwhile, during the second Test match, Shafique and Babar set a new partnership record. The bat-and-ball collaboration between the two batters lasted over 500 balls, making it the longest fourth-inning partnership in any Test.
Skipper Babar also gave his best during the series and created several 4th-inning batting records by scoring a fighting 196 on the final day of the second Test in Karachi.
Babar played 425 deliveries and stayed on the wicket for 607 minutes, creating new records for Pakistan in Test cricket.
The skipper became the first-ever Asian player to stay for more than 10 hours in the 4th innings of a Test match. He fell only 36 minutes short of former England cricketer team captain Mike Atherton’s world record of the longest individual innings in the 4th innings of a Test.
His knock of 196 is the highest 4th innings individual score by any captain in the history of Test Cricket.
Babar also joined the company of Mike Atherton (492), Herbert Sutcliffe (462) and Sunil Gavaskar (443) to become the only 4th batter to play 400+ deliveries in 4th innings of a Test match.
