Is Babar Azam Facing a Lean Patch Like Virat Kohli in 2020-22?
Babar Azam has his lean patch continuing in the international cricket. A player who maintained top spot in the ICC rankings now struggles to even reach 50s at his own home ground. With the Test match against South Africa, it has been more than 1000 days since he last scored a Test century.
Babar Azam has his lean patch continuing in the international cricket. A player who maintained top spot in the ICC rankings now struggles to even reach 50s at his own home ground. With the Test match against South Africa, it has been more than 1000 days since he last scored a Test century.
Babar Azam, who was once at the top of the world, with his batting skills, has now experienced a downfall. It has been a long time since fans saw him score a century for the team. His last international century came against Nepal in 2023, after which
With Azam marking his return to the Test side, in the home series against South Africa, fans expected him to perform well. But he failed to register a big score even in the second Test. In the first innings, Azam got out for just 16 runs, which silenced the crowd in Rawalpindi. Now it seems that Babar Azam is going through the same phase like Virat Kohli did in 2020 to 2022.
1. Babar Azam (2023-2025*)
Babar Azam has entered a lean patch in the Test format from 2023. In 2022 alone, he was able to score four Test centuries. But since then, he has not even been able to secure four half-centuries in the Test format over the past two years. As of now, 1030 days have passed since Azam scored his last Test ton.
Babar Azam in Tests before 2023:
- Innings: 83
- Not Out: 9
- Runs: 3645
- Average: 49.26
- Strike Rate: 54.94
- 100s: 9
- 50s: 26
These stats were well enough to put Babar Azam at the top, among the greatest Test batsmen. But after his last Test century in 2022, his form dropped down like never before. Not only did his form drop in the Test format, he also struggled to perform well in the other formats of the game.
to know that his last international century came against Nepal in 2023 Asia Cup. Since then, he has not been able to score a ton for the team, which eventually led to a downfall for him. He went on to lose his captaincy, and was also dropped from the Pakistan team for some series and tournaments, including Asia Cup 2025.
Babar Azam in Tests Since 2023:
- Innings: 28
- Not Out: 0
- Runs: 671
- Average: 23.96
- Strike Rate: 51.81
- 100s: 0
- 50s: 3
The wait for Pakistani fans continue as they eagerly want Babar Azam to score a century in the Test format or any other formats of the game. As the team also remains keen for new talents across all three formats of the game, it is necessary for Babar Azam to step up, else he might lose his position in the Pakistan cricket team.
2. Virat Kohli (2020-2022)
Similar to Babar Azam, Virat Kohli also had a lean patch which started from COVID-19 pandemic. Virat Kohli had scored 70 international centuries till the end of 2019. But as soon as the year 2020 started, his drought also began across all formats of the game.
Virat Kohli in Tests Before 2020:
- Innings: 141
- Not Out: 10
- Runs: 7202
- Average: 55.00
- Strike Rate: 55.16
- 100s: 27
- 50s: 22
Virat Kohli was in red hot form in the Test format till 2019. He was also leading the century charts among the Fab four players, which included Smith, Kohli, Williamson, and Root. But since then, his form dropped down so bad that he also suffered a similar fate to Babar Azam.
From 2020 to 2022, Virat Kohli had scored no centuries in the Test format. Moreover in this period, his ratings as a Test batsman dropped, with Kohli failing to score runs consistently for the Indian team. This was not just the story of him in Test format, but even across all the other formats of the game.
Virat Kohli in Tests from 2020 to 2022:
- Innings: 36
- Not Out: 1
- Runs: 917
- Average: 26.20
- Strike Rate: 42.26
- 100s: 0
- 50s: 6
In the tough phase being encountered by Virat Kohli, there were talks by the cricket analysts to drop him from the Test team. However, he marked his return to the T20I format in 2022, finally scoring a ton in the Asia Cup match against Afghanistan. Later, he went on to perform well for the team across the ICC tournaments too.
When Virat Kohli was having a tough time, Babar Azam stood for him. He tweeted some motivational words for Virat Kohli, telling him that this tough time will also pass soon. Now it seems that Babar Azam also requires such words of motivation from someone else, to help him end his century-less phase.
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