The first Pakistan-Australia Test was a historic occasion to be celebrated, marking the Aussies’ first Test in the country since 1998.
However, it will also go down as one of the dullest, drabbest draws in history, after just 14 wickets fell over five days of play. Only two Tests in history have seen more balls bowled and fewer wickets fall.
The match was a particular toil for Australia’s bowlers, who claimed just three wickets. Pakistan racked up 728-4 across two innings, with Babar Azam falling to a run out from Marnus Labuschagne. Australia’s combined bowling average of 238.33 was the second-highest any team has recorded in a single Test, behind, strangely enough, Pakistan, who found themselves on the wrong end of Garry Sobers’ world record Test score in 1958.
The game was heaven for the two batting sides, with the combined batting average a mammoth 84.78, the 13th highest in history. Pakistan had four centurions – Azhar Ali, Abdullah Shafique, and Imam-ul-Haq (twice). Only twice have Pakistan scored more hundreds in a single Test match, against Bangladesh in 2001, and against Australia in 2014, in a match made famous for Misbah-ul-Haq claiming the world record for the fastest Test ton.
For Australia, there was no landmark score to celebrate, with Usman Khawaja’s 97 their top score. However, the team effort was still an impressive one. All of their top four made it past 60, a first for Australia playing in Asia, while their eventual total of 459 was one of the highest not to include a century. There were 432 runs off the bat in the innings. Only six times have Australia managed more without an individual hundred.
The game was at least one to savour for Pakistan’s two openers, Shafique and Imam. Shafique’s 136*, his maiden Test century, is the fifth-highest score by a Pakistan opener aged 22 or younger, while Imam’s twin tons have put him into an exclusive club as the 10th Pakistan batter to score two hundreds in the same Test.
Pakistan’s opening pair came into the game with no tons between them, and left it with three, but for Azhar, bringing up big scores is already a familiar feeling. His 19th Test hundred allowed him to close the gap on the quartet widely regarded as Pakistan’s greatest – Javed Miandad, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Younis Khan, and Mohammad Yousuf. Azhar is now just 624 runs behind Yousuf’s career tally, and four hundreds behind Miandad in the tons stakes.
The two teams will now head to Karachi for Australia’s second Test in Pakistan since 1998. Apart from perhaps a few batters, everyone will be hoping there’s a little more on offer for the bowlers this time around.
