No batter who has debuted since 1990 has as big a variance in home and away averages, but his overall recent run is pulling his team down.
Babar Azam’s dwindling returns continue to affect Pakistan’s all-format transition and recovery.
Pakistan’s premier batter aggregated runs in enviable numbers between 2015 and 2022 across formats — 11,434 at an average of 50.37 with 28 centuries. While it was still bettered by Virat Kohli (13,757 at 59.04) and Joe Root (12,088 at 49.13), Babar’s prolific run took him among the international batting elite during this period.
But he has since endured a scoring lull, coinciding with his team’s underwhelming run at the 2023 ODI World Cup and the T20 World Cup earlier this year. Across two World Test Championship cycles, Pakistan have won only two of their last seven Tests in which Babar’s batting average lurked in the mid-30s.
On Wednesday, Babar’s start to the 2024-25 Test season against Bangladesh began with his first duck at home, and a first in the format since 2021. It was his 18th duck in international cricket, eight of which have come in 95 Test innings. In comparison, Sri Lanka’s Angelo Mathews, who batted at No. 4 like Babar on the same day against England in Manchester, fell for his seventh duck in his 195th Test innings – one fewer in 100 more outings.
