Underfire Babar Azam On Cusp Of Scripting Historic 1st In Boxing Day Test vs South Africa | cricket news

Former Pakistan captain Babar Azam is ready to make his Test comeback, with the workforce set to tackle South Africa within the first Test of a two-match sequence, beginning Boxing Day. Babar was dropped from the Test workforce for the final two Tests in opposition to England at residence, following a string of poor scores. Babar has not scored a century in any format since August final yr. During that section, he performed 43 innings throughout codecs. However, Babar might be eyeing an enormous milestone when the Boxing Day Test will get underway in Centurion.

Babar is simply three runs away from finishing 4,000 runs in Test cricket. If he will get to the milestone, Babar will grow to be the primary Pakistan batsman to attain 4000 Test runs, 5000 ODI runs and 2000 T20I runs.

So far, Babar has scored 3,997 runs in 55 Test matches at a median of 54.46, with 9 centuries. However, it has been greater than two years since Babar reached triple figures in Test cricket.

His final century in Test was a 161-run knock in opposition to New Zealand at Karachi in December 2022. In truth, he solely scored 366 runs in 18 innings with out even scoring a half-century.

Babar, nevertheless, has been recalled for the 1st Test in opposition to South Africa. He will proceed to bat at no. 3 with opener Abdullah Shafique dropped from the workforce.

Kamran Ghulam, who scored century on his debut in opposition to England earlier this yr, will bat at no. 4th within the sequence opener in Centurion.

Captain Shan Masood and teen Saim Ayub will open the batting for Pakistan.

Meanwhile, pacer Mohammed Abbas may also make his Pakistan return. He final donned the whites in August 2021 in opposition to the West Indies in Kingston.

Pakistan’s XI vs South Africa, 1st Test:

Shan Masood, Saim Ayub, Babar Azam, Kamran Ghulam, Mohammad Rizwan (WK), Saud Shakeel, Salman Agha, Aamer Jamal, Naseem Shah, Khurram Shahzad, Mohammad Abbas