Babar Azam made a reasonable return for Pakistan in international cricket in the first ODI against Australia on Monday, November 4 at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground. Babar scored 37 runs off 44 balls with four fours before Adam Zampa dismissed him against the run of play.
Australia vs Pakistan, 1st ODI Updates
After being asked to bat first, Pakistan lost the early wicket of Saim Ayub, who scored only a single on his ODI debut before Mitchell Starc cleaned him up. Pakistan also lost Abdullah Shafique cheaply, but Babar put his head down and played some glorious shots.
The 30-year-old Babar dealt in singles early in his knock before collecting his first boundary with an on-drive off Pat Cummins. In the last ball of the same over, Babar creamed Cummins through the off-side for another boundary.
In the penultimate ball of the 11th over, Babar pulled Mitchell Starc through the mid-wicket boundary for a four. Then, in the last ball of the 16th over from Sean Abbott, Babar dished out a cut shot through third man to collect his fourth boundary of the innings.
But Zampa cut short his stay in the middle. In the 18th over, Zampa ran through his defence and rattled his woodwork. Babar tried to go on to the backfoot to a ball that wasn’t overly short and was beaten all ends up. He went for a flick, but saw his stumps rattled.
Babar was also involved in a partnership of 39 runs for the third wicket with Mohammad Rizwan, the newly-appointed skipper of the Pakistan white-ball team. With Babar’s dismissal, Pakistan lost their third wicket with 63 on the board in 17.4 overs.
Babar recently lost his place in the national Test team when Pakistan faced England in the three-match ODI series. Babar will be expected to score big in the last two ODIs in Adelaide and Perth.