Babar falls in un-Babar-esque fashion

39.2, Babar Azam, c Burns b Hazlewood, 1 (4)

With just one Test hundred in 41 innings, Babar Azam, the world’s No.1-ranked T20I batsman, hasn’t yet cracked the red-ball code. In the lead-up to the first Test, Babar slammed a century and a fifty in two warm-up games, giving Pakistan fans hopes of translating his prolific white-ball returns in whites.

80.6, Starc to Naseem, hat-trick ball

Naseem Shah’s first taste of international cricket came with a bat in hand, and a pumped-up Mitchell Starc waiting at his bowling mark. Having seen Yasir Shah and Shaheen Afridi depart off consecutive deliveries from the dressing room, the 16-year-old, walking in at No.10, was tasked with defying the hat-trick delivery, against the second new ball firmly in Starc’s grip.

With every possibility of Starc hurling in another toe-crusher, Naseem stayed deep in his crease, and somehow managed to put bat on a full ball just off its mark. He tried to shake off the nerves by trying to steal a single off the inside edge, but had to wait until the next over to get his first Test runs. The next 20 minutes went by surviving the wrath of Starc, and he even managed to dig out a low full-toss out to the long-on fence, but Starc ended the day by bouncing out the debutant.