Pakistan's home series loss to Bangladesh in Rawalpindi took their streak of home Tests without a win to ten. Where does this rank among their worst ever?
The first Test of two between the teams saw Bangladesh record their first-ever win over Pakistan in Test cricket, emerging victorious by 10 wickets on the back of significant contributions from Mushfiqur Rahim (191) and Mehidy Hasan Miraz (1-80, 77 & 4-21).
In the second match, Pakistan reduced Bangladesh to 26-6 in their first innings with the ball, but the visitors fought their way out trouble thanks to Litton Das and Mehidy Hasan Miraz before going on to claim a famous series victory.
The result has extended an unwanted record for Pakistan. They have now played ten Tests in a row at home without winning (4 draws, 6 losses). Their last Test win in Pakistan came over three years ago, in February 2021 in Rawalpindi, when they beat South Africa by 95 runs. Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Rizwan and Shaheen Shah Afridi all shone in that match.
Is this an all-time poor run for Pakistan? And where does it rank among the worst home runs of any team ever?
Pakistan close in on unwanted team record
Note: Matches played by Pakistan at 'home' in the UAE during the 2010s have not been included, only the ones that took place in Pakistan.
As far as their own home form goes, Pakistan are in dire touch. Ten home matches without a win is their second-longest winless streak of all time. On two previous occasions, they have gone winless in eight home matches (March 1959-October 1964 and October 1998-March 2000).
Their worst run ever remains 11 winless matches, from February 1969 to March 1975. This sequence saw an incredible 10 draws and just one loss, to New Zealand in Lahore. In this timeframe, Pakistan also played 12 matches away from home – winning one, losing four and drawing the other seven.
Read more: How many teams have lost a Test match after declaring in the first innings?
They now run the risk of overtaking this run when England visit for a three-Test series in October.
In recent history, this is also among the worst runs at home by any team. At present, only Zimbabwe are on a worse streak of home results than Pakistan, with 14 winless matches, stretching back to 2014.
In fact, since the turn of the century, the only other team to register a home winless streak longer than ten matches is Bangladesh (15 and 27 in two separate runs). West Indies once went nine home matches without a win from February 2009 to June 2010.
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What is the longest home winless streak of all time?
Bangladesh's aforementioned streak of 27 matches without a win at home is the longest by any Test team ever. Between January 2005 and January 2014, they played all of Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, Australia, India, South Africa, New Zealand, England, West Indies and Pakistan without collecting a single win. This streak was finally snapped when they beat Zimbabwe by three wickets in Mirpur in October 2014.
In fact, Bangladesh only narrowly avoided going a total of 43 home matches without a win. They did not win any of their home matches from November 2000 to December 2004, a run of 15 games. They then beat Zimbabwe in Chattogram, before suffering the run of 27 winless games.
There have been three other instances of teams failing to win 20-plus home matches in a row – South Africa from January 1931 to March 1950 (24), West Indies from May 1965 to April 1973 (22) and New Zealand from January 1930 to March 1956 (21).
Australia are the only team in Test match history to never go nine home matches without a win. Their worst run is eight, from November 1985 to December 1986.
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