Two days after witnessing a huge amount of praise for a supportive tweet for former Indian skipper, Virat Kohli, Pakistan captain, Babar Azam has again garnered some applause during Pakistan’s first Test match against Sri Lanka. On a day where his teammates made little impact with the bat, the Pakistan skipper pulled off a gritty century in Galle.
Babar Azam was at his very best on the second day of Pakistan’s first Test of the two-match series against Sri Lanka, which is being played at the Galle International Stadium. The 27-year-old talismanic batter played a valiant knock of 244-ball 119 in an innings when 19 was the second-best score, came off Mohammad Rizwan’s bat.
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In the process, Babar went passed Virat Kohli to become the quickest (by innings) to surpass the tally of 10000 international runs by an Asian. While Babar completed the feat in 228 innings, Kohli took 232 innings to reach the landmark.
More importantly, Babar’s superb century brought Pakistan back into the contest after they bowled Sri Lanka out for 222 on Day 1. The visitors were left reeling at 112/8 at one point until Babar held the fort and took his team to a respectable total of 218. He was well supported by Hasan Ali (17 off 21 balls) and Naseem Shah (5* off 47 balls) — their Nos. 10 and 11.
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In fact, Naseem along with Babar Azam made a decent partnership of 70 runs for the last wicket. At stumps on Day 2, Sri Lanka reached 36/1 in the second innings, leading by 40 runs. They lost their skipper Dimuth Karunaratne, who was pinned leg before by Mohammad Nawaz in the penultimate over of the day after scoring 16.
Here is how the fans reacted to the century from Babar Azam:
https://twitter.com/RN31888/status/1548627768396681216?s=20&t=jNep75IEVc3jx0PSf2db9w
کپتان کا 100
King "Babar Azan" #PAKvsSL pic.twitter.com/0GEPz5M1uE— Hafiz Muhammad Jaber Waqas (@MJWaqasch1) July 17, 2022
Babar Azam Test Century:
✨ 1st in Sri Lanka.
✨ 2nd as Captain.
✨ 3rd vs Sri Lanka.
✨ 4th in 1st innings.
✨ 5th on the Sunday.
✨ 6th in WTC history.
✨ 7th of his Test Career.#BabarAzam𓃵 #PAKvsSL pic.twitter.com/a7ZTHounhn— Team Babar Azam (@Team_BabarAzam) July 17, 2022
Fastest Asian batsman to 10,000 International Runs:
🇵🇰 𝟮𝟮𝟴 𝗶𝗻𝗻𝘀 – 𝗕𝗮𝗯𝗮𝗿 𝗔𝘇𝗮𝗺 👑
🇮🇳 232 inns – Virat KohliAnother day of Babar Azam leaving Virat Kohli behind him in numbers. #BabarAzam𓃵 #SLvPAK pic.twitter.com/FMEdbVxhzj
— Team Babar Azam (@Team_BabarAzam) July 17, 2022
So I'm waiting for this moment 😭🥺❤️#PAKvsSL #SLvPAK #BabarAzam𓃵 pic.twitter.com/TPP8qpw4aK
— 🇵🇸 (@___irhaa) July 17, 2022
The Fab One. #SLvPAK #BabarAzam𓃵 pic.twitter.com/kCg3i5BlRp
— 𝓢𝓮𝓱𝓻𝓲𝓼𝓱 🇵🇰 (@itsmeSehrish) July 17, 2022
Babar Azam in international cricket
Innings – 228
Runs – 10000
Average – 51.02
Fifties – 66
Hundreds – 24
Fours – 1019
Sixes – 99– He becomes the fastest Pakistani player & overall 5th fastest to score 10K international runs. Living legend! #BabarAzam𓃵 #PAKvsSL pic.twitter.com/5b0T11Pj8e
— Adnan Chaudhary (DANI😇) (@itsdani04) July 17, 2022
Babar Azam completes 𝟏𝟎,𝟎𝟎𝟎 International Runs in 𝟐𝟐𝟖 innings at an average of 𝟓𝟏.𝟎𝟐.
✨ The 11th Pakistani to do so.
✨ The fastest Pakistani in terms of innings.
✨ The highest average for Pakistan.#SLvPAK #BabarAzam𓃵 pic.twitter.com/ZGZt8YySGd— Team Babar Azam (@Team_BabarAzam) July 17, 2022
https://twitter.com/FahadKhilji02/status/1548631274516090880?s=20&t=fXD0jRBQiSLQ2yYQVqPs2w
