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Former Pakistan Test skipper Babar Azam bagged a silver-duck against Bangladesh in the ongoing first Test in Rawalpindi. Early in the day, the first day’s play started late due to wet outfields. After the early Lunch Break, the visitors, Bangladesh won the toss and elected to bowl first. They had a great start as Abdullah Shafique was caught by Zakir Hasan off Hasan Mahmud in the fourth over.
It was followed by skipper Shan Masood’s wicket in the seventh over. In the ninth over, Azam was caught down the leg side by Litton Das off Shoriful Islam. Considering his batting class, it was a soft dismissal. However, with this dismissal, the right-hander’s poor form continues in the longest format of the game. His last Test century came in the year 2022 against England.
Since then, the 2017 Champions Trophy winner hasn’t been at his best in the Test format. He averaged 22.66 in five Tests last year and is averaging 16.33 in the ongoing year after three games including the ongoing one.
Talking about the game, the home team was reduced to 16/3 with the wicket of Azam. However, the likes of Saim Ayub and Saud Shakeel put together 98 runs for the fourth wicket. The former scored his maiden Test fifty before losing his wicket to Mahmud. At the time of writing, Shakeel and wicketkeeper batter Mohammad Rizwan are batting at the crease. The left-hander, Shakeel has scored 50 while Rizwan is batting on 22.
Babar Azam is also struggling in white-ball formats
The Lahore-born player isn’t only struggling in the red-ball format. The 29-year-old had a bad time in the ODI World Cup 2023 as he managed only 320 runs in nine games and ranked outside of 20 spots. Apart from this, the Peshawar Zalmi skipper in the PSL failed to score a fifty in the T20 World Cup 2024 and his team bowed out in the first round.
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The two-match Test series between Pakistan and Bangladesh is part of the World Test Championship 2023-25 cycle. Both teams need to win this series to come close to qualifying for the final in 2025.
