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Follow Us“Babar Azam cover drive is a thing of beauty,” said Isa Guha on air during the first session of the third and final Test between Australia and Pakistan in Sydney on Wednesday (January 3).
The SCG crowd witnessed three of them, who were gorgeous. He was looking at his absolute best. Everything was going well, but then came that inswinger, something Babar has struggled against throughout his career, and it once again led to his downfall.
The former Pakistan captain didn’t have a great 2023 and has been struggling for runs in Test cricket. In fact, the 29-year-old hasn’t managed a single 50-plus score since that 161 against New Zealand in Karachi in December 2022.
204 runs in nine innings at an average of 22.67 - this is what Babar did in Test cricket last year. He was a bit under pressure coming into this game. However, he couldn’t have asked for a better start and surface to get that big knock.
The start wasn’t ideal for Pakistan, as they lost both their openers Abdullah Shafique and debutant Saim Ayub for a duck, becoming the first openers to bag ‘0’ in Test cricket at the SCG.
Pakistan were 4/2 when Babar walked into bat, with Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood moving the ball both ways. He had to wait 22 deliveries before finally getting a ball under his bat, but once Hazlewood went full and slightly wide, Babar brought out his trademark cover drive.
With little pace and bounce on offer, Starc also made the mistake of going full, looking for swing, and got hit for two boundaries in five deliveries. Babar was starting to look more and more confident, and that’s when Pat Cummins decided to bring himself into the attack.
The first delivery he bowled to Babar was an inswinger on the stumps, check-driven down the ground for three runs. That wasn’t going to stop Cummins from trying something that has worked well for him and other bowlers against Babar in the past.
In his next over, Cummins started with a short of length delivery before hitting the good length on the next, and then came that big hooping inswinger. Babar missed the flick. It hit the pad first, then the bat. The on-field umpire wasn’t convinced, but Cummins and his teammates were.
The decision was sent to the third umpire and the replays suggested it would have gone on to hit the leg-stump. Babar wasn’t too impressed, but it was probably more with the fact that he allowed Cummins to get the better of him for the third time in the series.
This has been Australia’s ploy against Babar throughout this three-match series, and it has worked quite well so far, with Pakistan’s star batter managing only 103 runs in five innings @ 20.6. Moreover, in his last three innings, Babar has been undone by an inswinger.
In the first innings of the second Test in Melbourne, Cummins went through Babar’s defence and knocked over his off-stump. Hazlewood did the same thing in the second innings when he was batting on 41.
Babar has a history of committing himself a bit too early, which is one of the reasons why he has struggled against nip-backers. Cummins and Hazlewood can get the ball to come back in very late from the length and have even troubled someone like Cheteshwar Pujara in the past.
Not just in this series, eight of Babar’s 15 Test dismissals in Australia have come against deliveries coming back in. The batter now averages just 25.4 Down Under, the only country where he averages less than 35 (at least three innings).
It’s often said that even if you have one technical flaw in your game, the Australians will find a way to exploit it repeatedly. And that’s what Cummins and Hazlewood have done in this series.
Even if you look at Babar’s overall Test numbers, he has gotten out to inswingers 25 times and has an average of 31.7 on such deliveries, his lowest (vs pace) against any delivery type. And this is a problem he has had since the start of his career, especially in Tests outside Asia.
Having resigned from captaincy in all three formats, many expected Babar to carry Pakistan’s batting unit in Australia, but things haven’t quite gone as planned for him and his team. Pakistan were always expected to get whitewashed in Australia. However, it's Babar's form that would be more concerning for the management.
Amongst batters who bat in the top five, Babar has the least number of runs, worst average, and balls/dismissal (41.8) since 2023 (Min: 10 innings).
He will get one more opportunity in the second innings to correct his recent record, but if he fails again, especially in a similar fashion, Babar will have to face more scrutiny. You can’t be one of the best batters of the modern generation and keep repeating the same mistake again and again.
