Home bully Babar Azam’s recent form a concern for Pakistan

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.

While he has been among the runs in the World Test Championship since its inception in 2019, Babar has had a skewed home-and-away dichotomy with the bat.

No batter who has debuted since 1990 has had a better home Test average (min. 1,000 runs) than Babar – 67.77. However, his middling away haul, averaging 36.86 after 56 innings, neutralises his overall account. The home-away average variance of 30.91 is the highest among the 10 batters who have achieved a 1,000-plus run and 60-plus average double at home since 1990.

In contrast, Kumar Sangakkara (7.31) and Steve Smith (9.1) have the least variance in the mentioned bracket. Virat Kohli, who has played the most away innings (110) among them, has a home-away average difference of 17.21. Interestingly, Babar’s WTC home-away splits are a microcosm of his overall Test career with a 24.33 difference.

Babar’s last Test duck, before Wednesday, came 37 innings back in 2021 against Zimbabwe. In these three years, he amassed four hundreds – three at home and one in Sri Lanka. He crossed fifty 10 times and the 75-run mark in five innings. However, Babar failed to convert any of them and has now gone 13 innings without a fifty.

Since his Test debut in late 2016, Babar has batted in the top six in 93 innings while bagging eight ducks. Five of those came in a single season in 2017, raising an average of 11.6 innings per duck.

A blob may just be one of Babar’s many lingering concerns. But there’s no harsher ignominy than having a ‘0’ against one’s name. When he takes guard in his next outing, Babar will prefer century No. 10 over duck No. 9.

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