Babar Azam surpasses Virat Kohli, Brian Lara and other captains with THIS huge record

Pakistan captain Babar Azam’s monumental 196-run fourth innings knock helped his side to a fighting draw against Pat Cummins-led Australia in the second Test in Karachi on Wednesday (March 16). On course of his incredible record, Babar smashed multiple records including those set by Indian captain Virat Kohli as well. 

Babar batted for more than 10 hours and played 425 balls in the 2nd Test at Karachi. Pakistan skipper Babar also registered the highest fourth innings individual score by a Test captain in the Karachi Test match. The Pakistan captain surpassed the great Don Bradman, Virat Kohli, Ricky Ponting and Brian Lara. Babar shattered Michael Atherton’s record by smashing the highest fourth inning individual score by a captain. The former England skipper had scored 185 against South Africa in 1995. 

Babar Azam leads the list of highest scores made by captains in 4th innings. #BoysReadyHain l #PAKvAUS pic.twitter.com/xNQ3W3Tobu — Pakistan Cricket (@TheRealPCB) March 16, 2022

Kohli’s top-score in the 4th innings as captain was a brilliant 141 against Australia in Adelaide in 2014. Set a mammoth 506-run target in the 2nd Test, opener Imam-ul-Haq and former skipper Azhar Ali were removed cheaply on Day 4. Leading the hosts from the front at Karachi, Babar frustrated the Australian bowlers with his marathon knock. Babar ended up breaking Shoaib Malik’s (369) record of playing most deliveries for the hosts in a Test match. 

Babar also eclipsed former Pakistani batter Younis Khan by securing the record of scoring the most runs in the 4th innings. The 27-year-old holds the record of scoring the most runs by a Pakistani batter in the 4th innings. Pakistan’s Younis had scored 171 not out against Sri Lanka in 2015. Babar’s career-best 196 powered Pakistan to 443/7 as the 2nd Test match ended in a stalemate. 

“I think credit goes to the team for having a lot of self-belief in themselves and coming back strongly after batting poorly in the first innings. My innings is definitely one of my better ones and I am glad it helped us draw the match,” Babar said in the post-match conference. 

He said he always rated those of his innings very highly which played a big role in Pakistan winning a match or saving it. The top batter also admitted that he and Muhammad Rizwan had not given much thought to taking a shot at chasing down the total and when wickets fell they played for a draw. 

“In the second innings every one gave his 100 percent because we had self-belief in ourselves we could save the match. We decided to take it session by session and not think too much ahead,” he said. 

Babar added that had he and Rizwan batted together a little longer they would have gone for a run chase but when he and Faheem Ashraf got out on successive balls the best option was to play for a draw. 

(with PTI inputs)