Senior Pakistan batter and former skipper, Babar Azam, returned to the national side for the first Test against South Africa on Sunday, October 12, in Lahore. Babar started well but couldn't go beyond 23 as the Proteas staged a comeback after being on the receiving end of a 161-run partnership between skipper Shan Masood and Imam ul Haq. However, the 30-year-old did achieve a milestone in the World Test Championship (WTC), becoming the first Asian batter to get to 3,000 runs.
Babar, who needed just a couple of runs to get to the landmark, did so with a streaky boundary against Senuran Muthusamy, off the inside edge. Babar now has 3,021 runs against his name in the WTC in 67 innings and found himself just 20 runs behind England's Zak Crawley, who has played 95 innings to accumulate 3,041 runs.
Most runs in World Test Championship (WTC) history
6,080 - Joe Root (England)
4,278 - Steve Smith (Australia)
4,225 - Marnus Labuschagne (Australia)
3,616 - Ben Stokes (England)
3,300 - Travis Head (Australia)
3,288 - Usman Khawaja (Australia)
3,041 - Zak Crawley (England)
3,021 - Babar Azam (Pakistan)
Among Asian batters, Indian Test captain Shubman Gill is the closest to Babar with 2,826 runs against his name in 71 innings, having taken his game to another level since taking over the reins. Gill scored an unbeaten 129 for India in the ongoing second Test against the West Indies in Delhi, smashing his 10th Test century and is quickly chasing that 3,000 mark.
It was a dry wicket to start off the new WTC cycle for Pakistan at home in the first Test in Lahore in three years. It was good for batting to start off, but there were expectations of it to break down from the second day onwards and it spun in the last two sessions with all three Proteas spinners coming into the game, reducing Pakistan to 199/5 from 163/1. However, Salman Agha and Mohammad Rizwan did the firefighting job nicely in the final session and Pakistan will be keen to go unscathed for the last period of play.