Babar Azam Falls to a New Low in Australia Tour, Surpasses Virat Kohli’s 2014 England Horror

Babar Azam’s new year started on an underwhelming note after his abysmal show on Pakistan’s tour of Australia. He failed to score a single fifty while accumulating just 126 runs in 3 Test matches. Given his stature, Babar’s haul is quite the shocker as his recent spoils mark his third-lowest aggregate ever in a three-match Test series.

For comparison, his 126-run series is even lower than Virat Kohli’s nightmarish outing on India’s tour of England in 2014. In that five-match series, Kohli aggregated a total of 135 runs while averaging a below-par 10.5.

Virat Kohli’s woeful run in England in 2014 is one of the lowest points in the former captain’s career. He once endured a statistically worse campaign than Babar Azam’s recent series back in 2017 against Australia. In the five innings, Kohli could only put up an aggregate of 46 runs. In 2023, however, Virat Kohli had been on an absolute tear, smashing a whopping eight centuries. He even broke the record for the most runs scored at an ODI World Cup with a tally of 765.

The same, however, cannot be said for Babar Azam. Pakistan had a forgettable campaign in the 2023 ODI World Cup, failing to make the knockout. After the tournament, Babar stepped down as the Pakistan skipper from all three formats. Shan Masood then assumed the captaincy role in Tests while Shaheen Afridi replaced Babar in T20Is.

In the opening Test match of the series in Perth, Babar Azam only managed scores of 21 and 14 runs. He was completely outshone by the Australian duo of David Warner and Mitchell Marsh. Warner had smashed 164 runs in just the first innings of the game which is higher than Babar’s total 126-run haul in the three-match Test series.

This led to Pakistan losing the opening Test by a whopping 360 runs. In the second Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Babar’s nightmares continued as he bagged scores of one run and 41 across the two innings. Pat Cummins was crowned the Player of the Match in that Test for his 10-wicket haul that helped the hosts bag a second consecutive win. In the final Test of the series, Babar put together a total of 49 runs in the two innings. His woeful performance enabled Australia to whitewash the Pakistan squad 3-0 at home.