Pakistan captain Babar Azam was already renowned as one of the world’sfinest white-ball batsmen but he can now justifiably join the ranks ofAustralia’s Steve Smith, India’s Virat Kohli, England’s Joe Root and NewZealand’s Kane Williamson as a modern-day master.
“Glad we don’t have to bowl to Babar any more for a while,” saidlimited-overs captain Aaron Finch after Azam top scored for the third matchrunning with 66 in his side’s 162-8 in Tuesday’s lone T20 international.
Azam stood tall in all three formats but his 425-ball, 607-minute,career-best 196 to save the second Test in Karachi was an epic.
Two years after his last Test century, his extraordinary display was thehighest fourth-innings score by a captain in history.
There was no let-up in the ODI series as he smashed back-to-back hundredsin the last two matches in Lahore to lead Pakistan’s come-from-behind 2-1victory.
Meanwhile, Australia’s cricketers were heading home Wednesday aftercompleting their first tour to Pakistan since 1998.
Pat Cummins’ side won the three-Test series 1-0, lost the one-dayinternationals 2-1 and rounded off an incident-free trip with victory inthe lone Twenty20 international. It was the first full tour to Pakistan bya top Test-playing nation since the fatal attack on a Sri Lanka team bus inLahore in 2009.