Babar Azam plummets to new low with Australia flop show, beats Virat Kohli's 2014 England horror

 Babar Azam's Australia Test campaign came to an end with a flop.

Babar Azam plummets to new low with Australia flop show, beats Virat Kohli's 2014 England horror

Babar Azam's 2024 has started with the same whimper that 2023 ended with. The former Pakistan captain's nightmare performance against Australia ended with another low score of 23, as his team collapsed to lose 7 wickets for 68 in their second innings of the Sydney Test. Babar, who was out for 26 in the first innings by an in-dipper from Pat Cummins, was out LBW to Australia's captain. Babar's second Test series in Australia concludes with an abysmal tally of 126 runs from six innings at an average of 21 and a highest of 41 in the MCG Test.

In a three-Test series, this is Babar's third-lowest aggregate. Babar had only scored 68 runs in his previous visit to Australia in 2016/17, but he quickly followed that up with a 136-run haul against the West Indies. But both of those tours were seven to eight years ago, when Babar was a 22-year-old newcomer to international cricket.

However, given the heights Babar and his batting have reached in the last 3-4 years, Babar finishing with just over 126 runs is a bit of a surprise. The Australia Tests were going to be a true test of Babar's character, having piled loads of runs on Pakistan and subcontinent pitches, and it's safe to assume that the star Pakistan batter has fumbled big time. In fact, Babar's 126-run series is worse than Virat Kohli's nightmare performance in England in 2024. Kohli had 135 runs at an average of 10.5 in a five-Test series. Kohli once had statistically worse figures in a three-Test series than Babar after reaching his peak - 46 runs against Australia in 2017 - but he batted first in five inings.

Babar trolled

When Babar was fired, terms like 'Bobsi' and 'Zimbabar' started trending on the social media platform X. Babar hasn't been in great shape lately. His most recent century in any format was 151 against Nepal in the Asia Cup in August 2023. Babar suffered another setback in the World Cup 2023, finishing with 320 runs from nine matches as Pakistan failed to qualify for the semi-finals. In fact, his 41 in the previous Test was his highest in Tests in 2023, capping off a calendar year in which he did not score a single Test fifty. Basit Ali was the last Pakistan batter to bat in at least eight innings when this happened in 1995.

Australia, which leads the series 2-0, has the opportunity to make it 3-0 and complete their sixth straight series sweep of Pakistan. They are trailing by 82 runs, with only three wickets remaining when play resumes on Day 4 on Saturday.