Babar Azam endured a poor tour of Australia with the bat in his first series after leaving the captaincy. Sarah Waris takes a deeper look at his Test numbers.

Babar Azam has been termed a modern-day great, establishing himself as a match-winner in ODIs and T20Is. He averages 56.72 in 50-over cricket, making 5,729 runs in 114 innings, the third-most in the world since his debut. Fakhar Zaman, the second Pakistani on the list, has scored 2,237 runs fewer than him in this period.

In T20Is, Babar has made 3,485 runs in 104 games at 41.48, the second-best average in the format among batters with 3,000 runs. His strike rate has been a bone of contention but it has not stopped him from scoring three hundreds, pushing him into an exclusive six-member club of batters with more than two T20I tons.

In Test cricket, Babar averages an impressive 45.85 and is Pakistan’s top run-scorer since his debut in 2016, all of which have led to debates of his greatness in the current era. But, delve deeper and you know why he isn’t there yet.

His average at home (including matches in the UAE, Pakistan’s former home away from home) is 59.35 but falls drastically while touring, to 36.86. It’s not a number that’s hugely concerning because, since his debut, only eight players have batted in 40 Test innings abroad and averaged more than Babar, indicating the quality of the bowling attacks of late.

The players who average more than 40 are Steve Smith (54.97), Joe Root (46.66), Usman Khawaja (45.29), Dinesh Chandimal (40.97), Virat Kohli (40.61) and Babar’s former teammate Azhar Ali (40.37).

Babar finished the recent Australia series with an average of 21, making 126 runs in six innings. He has toured Australia thrice, scoring 404 runs in eight innings at an average of 25.25 with a hundred and a 97, both of which came in 2019. This is the lowest a touring specialist batter has averaged in the country since 2010 (minimum eight Tests). Alastair Cook (1,388 runs at an average of 57.83) and Virat Kohli (1,352 runs at 54.08) are the only two players to average 50 or more in the format as visitors in Australia in this period.

It also extended the former Pakistan skipper’s century-less streak outside Asia to 19 innings. Overall, Babar has played 25 of his 52 Tests outside Asia but only one of his nine centuries has come there. He averages 34.14 outside of Asia and is the only middle-order batter from the continent with fewer than two hundreds among cricketers who have batted in at least 40 innings.

Babar has played 14 away bilateral series, averaging below 30 five times and above 45 on six occasions, three of which have come in the tough SENA countries. He averaged 47.33, making 142 runs, in New Zealand in 2016/17 before starring in Australia in 2019 with an average of 52.50. He also impressed during the 2020 England series, making 195 runs in five innings at an average of 48.75. His overall average in England is 65.75 after four games. While brilliant, it is also a small sample size. In Australia, where he has played more, his average is 25.25.

Arguably the biggest test for a batter from Asia is his SENA record. Babar has toured the four countries on seven different occasions, making 1030 runs at an average of 35.51. Sixteen Asian players have scored 1,000 or more runs in SENA since 2010, with Babar having the sixth-best average. Among active cricketers, Kohli (43.93), Rishabh Pant (40.61) and Angelo Mathews (39.80) are above him. While Babar’s standing on the list is impressive, it does not stand out either.

Since the start of 2023, Babar has also struggled for runs in the format, averaging 23 without a fifty. It’s not that he has not looked good – even on the current Australia tour, he got off to a few steady starts – but he has been guilty of giving it away more often than not. Scoring eight fifty-plus knocks in 32 innings in SENA indicate a player who has the skills; but consistency, both in conversion rate and otherwise, has eluded Babar.

The overall batting numbers across the world have dwindled of late, but the biggest names continue topping the list in different parameters, finding ways to conquer despite the obstacles highlighting the gulf that exists between them and the others. Babar has been unable to perform consistently across conditions in Test cricket. If he wants to emerge as a modern great and challenge his contemporaries, it is one aspect of the game he will need to work on.

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