Babar Azam becomes 7th Pakistani to score 5th consecutive 50 in Test

KARACHI: Pakistan’s batsman Babar Azam, on Wednesday, added another feather to his cap when he scored 5th consecutive fifty during Pakistan’s first innings against England at Manchester.

Azam scored 69 off 100 before bad light forced early stumps on day one of Manchester Test. With this, he scored his 14th half-century of his Test career and became the 7th Pakistani batsman to score 50+ in five consecutive innings.

This tally also includes three scores in triple figures.

The last Pakistani batsman to achieve this feat was former captain Sarfaraz Ahmed, who scored the fifties in five consecutive innings between 2014 and 2015.

The other Pakistani batsmen who had accomplished this milestone include Zaheer Abbas, Mohammad Yousuf, Misbah ul Haq, and Inzamam ul Haq.

Azam is currently the only batsman to have an average of over 100 in the ongoing ICC Test Championship cycle. His average is 114.00 after scoring 684 runs in nine innings.

Meanwhile, Pakistani opener Shan Masood achieved a unique feat of becoming the first Pakistani opener in the 21st century to face more than 100 balls in first innings of a Test in England.

The last Pakistani batsman to achieve this was Saeed Anwar who faced 120 deliveries to score 74 at Lord’s in 1996.

Shan was also the first overseas batsman to do so in England since David Warner faced 131 deliveries in first innings of The Oval Test in August 2015.

Shan had faced 152 deliveries till stumps.