Pakistan’s former Test and ODI captain, Azhar Ali on 16 December, announced his decision to retire from Test cricket after the completion of the ongoing ICC World Test Championship series against England. After 12 incredible years of a long Test career, Azhar Ali has decided to call time with the final match of the series against England in Karachi.
As Ali draws curtains on his Test career, we take a look back at his Test statistics for Pakistan:
In 2010, Ali, as a 25-year-old, made his Test debut in England against Australia at Lord’s and scored his maiden Test half-century in only his second match.
Test Runs:
The 37-year-old, Azhar has 7079 Runs in Test cricket. He is one of the five players with 7000-plus runs for Pakistan in the format. His 19 centuries are the fifth-highest for Pakistan in Test cricket.
Highest Score:
Azhar’s highest score in Test cricket is 302*– against West Indies in 2016 in Dubai. It was the first-ever hundred scored in a day-night Test match and currently the second-highest individual score in a pink-ball Test. Azhar is only one among the four Pakistan batters to have scored a triple-hundred in Tests.
Balls-per-dismissal:
Azhar Ali has a 101.6 ratio of balls-per-dismissal in Test cricket. This is the fourth-best ratio for any batter with 100-plus innings since his debut. Only Younis Khan (107.7) had a better balls-per-dismissal than Azhar in Tests during this period for Pakistan.
Second Most Runs in a Calendar Year:
The second most runs by anyone for Pakistan in a calendar year was by Azhar Ali. He scored 1198 Test runs in 2016, behind Mohammad Yousuf’s 1788 runs in 2006. Azhar faced 2569 balls in 2016, which is also the second most in a year for Pakistan after Yousuf’s 2854 in 2006.
Test Matches Missed By Azhar Ali:
Azhar has missed 6 matches since his debut in July 2010. The only one player with 50-plus Test caps had missed fewer Tests for Pakistan during their career. Meanwhile, Hanif Mohammad missed only two of the 57 Tests by Pakistan during his 17-year career.
Azhar Ali as Test Opener:
Azhar, however, had the experience, having opened in 59 of 80 first-class innings before his Test debut in 2010. He scored 1359 runs as a Test opener between 2015 and 2017 at 59.08 – the second-best average among openers with at least 500 runs in this period.
“The innings of scoring 141 against England in the Southampton Test 2020 will remain the most special for me in my whole career,” said Ali.
“It is not an easy task to leave the dressing room of Pakistan, which I have been sharing for the last twelve years,” he added.
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