Babar Azam has had another middling run in the President’s Trophy Grade I, where he is playing for Oil & Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL). Playing his second round in the tournament, after missing out on the first two, Babar could only score 42 runs across both innings.
Babar’s weakness against short ball
While he scored 21 each in both innings, his outing in the second innings had at least some flow. He struck four boundaries before he was caught by second slip off an essentially non-threatening ball. But the fact that both these scores came after he had scored only 16 runs in both innings in the last game and that bowlers have now started openly exploiting his weakness against short balls is very worrisome.
Babar, who joined the tournament from its third round, last played a domestic first-class game in 2019 when he represented the now-defunct Central Punjab in a win in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy Final. His appearances in the format even at that point weren’t too many. Before the 2019 season, when Babar had only played two games, and after 2015, he had never played more than one first-class game per season.
Babar is understood to have requested the PCB to make him part of the competition, as he was not originally part of the OGDCL squad shared by the board ahead of the tournament. His return comes in the wake of his Test struggles as he reportedly wants to keep in touch with the format.
Babar’s Test form remains under scrutiny
The last time Babar scored a Test century was in 2022, when he scored a ton against New Zealand. Following that innings, Babar’s Test returns took a significant hit. For the next three years, his batting average hovered around the 20s to early 30s, with only four fifties across fifteen innings in those years.
This year, however, seems to have gone relatively well for Babar in Tests. He averages 50.62 in five games so far, with two home Tests remaining. But his struggles do not seem to be over yet. During the England tour, he scored single figures in three out of four innings, managing a 76 in the last innings of the Edgbaston Test.
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