Babar Azam's T20 Comeback Falls Flat with a Duck, Misses Out on Rohit Sharma's World Record

Babar Azam dismissed for a duck: Babar Azam, playing for Pakistan in T20s for the first time since December 2024, failed to perform. In the first T20 match against South Africa played in Rawalpindi, Babar Azam, who came in to bat at number three, could not even open his account. South Africa set Pakistan a big target of 195 runs to win. Pakistan got a good start of 31 runs for the first wicket. The Pakistan team management had high hopes from Babar, who was sent at number three, for a big innings, but he could not even open his account and got out on the second ball of his innings. He was caught by Reeza Hendricks off the bowling of Corbin Bosch.

Missed breaking Rohit Sharma's world record

By getting out on zero, Babar Azam missed out on breaking Rohit Sharma's world record for the most runs in T20s. Rohit has scored 4,231 runs in T20s. Babar Azam has 4,223 runs. With 9 more runs, he could have claimed the record for the most runs in international T20 cricket. He will have a chance in the next match. Rohit Sharma has retired from T20s.

If he flops this time, a comeback will be difficult

Babar Azam's slow batting, Pakistan's poor performance in major tournaments under his captaincy, and losses against smaller teams led to him and wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Rizwan being dropped from the T20 format. Babar Azam returned to this format after almost a year, but his performance has been disappointing. If Babar Azam continues to flop in the next 2 T20 matches, it could become very difficult for him to retain his place in T20s. Rizwan has not been successful in making a comeback in T20s.

A look at the match

Talking about the first T20 match between Pakistan and South Africa, the African team, batting first after losing the toss, scored 194 runs for the loss of 9 wickets, driven by Reeza Hendricks' half-century. In response, the Pakistan team was all out for 139 runs in 18.1 overs. Seven of their batsmen could not even reach double figures. Thus, South Africa won by 55 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the series.