Babar Azam has been facing recent slump in form which has impacted Pakistan’s transition and recovery across all formats.
Between 2015 and 2022, Babar amassed an impressive tally of 11,434 runs at an average of 50.37, including 28 centuries. Though surpassed by Virat Kohli (13,757 runs at 59.04) and Joe Root (12,088 runs at 49.13), Babar’s performance solidified his place among the elite batters internationally during that period.
Uncertainty Looms As Babar Azam Struggles With Poor Form
However, he has since experienced a significant dip in form, which has coincided with Pakistan’s lackluster performances in the 2023 ODI World Cup and the T20 World Cup earlier this year. Over the course of two World Test Championship cycles, Pakistan has won only two of their last seven Tests, with Babar’s batting average during this period hovering in the mid-30s.
Babar Azam’s 2024-25 Test season opener against Bangladesh on Wednesday saw him score a duck, his first at home and his first in Test cricket since 2021. This latest duck brings his total to 18 in international cricket, with eight of these coming in 95 Test innings. In contrast, Sri Lanka’s Angelo Mathews, who also batted at No. 4 that day against England in Manchester, fell for his seventh duck in 195 Test innings—one fewer than Babar but across 100 more innings.
Babar’s remarkable performance between 2015 and 2022 established him as a top-tier batter, but his recent form has exposed a stark home-away performance gap. He has the highest home Test average (67.77) among players debuting since 1990 with over 1,000 runs. Yet, his away average of 36.86 from 56 innings dilutes his overall numbers. This discrepancy of 30.91 is the largest among the ten batters who have scored over 1,000 runs with a home average exceeding 60 since 1990.
By comparison, Kumar Sangakkara (7.31) and Steve Smith (9.1) have the smallest home-away average differences. Virat Kohli, with the most away innings (110) among these players, shows a home-away difference of 17.21. Babar’s current home-away variance of 24.33 reflects a similar pattern throughout his Test career.
Before this latest duck, Babar’s previous one came 37 innings ago against Zimbabwe in 2021. Over the past three years, he scored four centuries—three at home and one in Sri Lanka—reached fifty ten times, and made it to 75 runs in five innings. Despite these starts, he has struggled to convert them into big scores and has now gone 13 innings without a half-century.
Since his Test debut in late 2016, Babar has played 93 innings in the top six and accumulated eight ducks, five of which came in the 2017 season alone, averaging one duck every 11.6 innings. While a duck is one of Babar’s many concerns, having a ‘0’ next to his name is particularly stinging. As he prepares for his next innings, he will surely hope to reach his tenth century rather than facing his ninth duck.
Babar Azam Was At The Top In ICC ODI Rankings
Babar Azam was recently named as the top ODI batter in the ICC ODI Rankings, Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli were below him.
Basit Ali, an ex-Pakistani cricketer criticised these rankings and suggested that ICC might be intentionally preventing Babar from performing and he further questioned ICC’s criteria of ranking.
“When I saw the ICC ranking (ODI batters), Babar Azam was at the top, number two was Rohit Sharma, number three was Shubman Gill, and then there was Virat Kohli at number four. I did not find it necessary to read the remaining names because I couldn’t see Travis Head and Rachin Ravindra. I think the ICC wants that Babar doesn’t perform. He would be happy with being the number one-ranked batter in ODIs. Who gives these rankings? On what basis are Babar Azam and Shubman Gill there,” Basit said on his YouTube channel.
“Babar’s last ODI was at the last year’s World Cup. We saw the likes of Rachin Ravindra, Quinton de Kock, Travis Head and Virat Kohli at the World Cup. They scored three-four hundreds in the tournament. For Pakistan, Mohammad Rizwan and Fakhar Zaman scored a century each. What kind of ranking do they give,” he further added.
