Babar Azam and Sarfaraz Ahmed taking Pakistan on a good total 

In the first Test match against New Zealand, Pakistan captain Babar Azam completed his 9th Test century. On the first day of the first test match of the series which is currently being played in Karachi, Pakistan's team came out to bat first, but within 50 runs, Pakistan lost early 3 wickets.

The hosts' skipper Babar Azam along with Sarfaraz Ahmed not only handled Pakistan's innings but also completed the 9th century of his test career and his 4th test century in 2022. He completed this century by playing a patient and crucial innings in 161 balls. Till the tea break, Pakistan was on 245/4, and Babar Azam and Sarfaraz Ahmed were playing on 122 and 59 runs respectively.

Babar completed his century by hitting a brilliant six off the very first ball of the 53rd over of Pakistan's innings. This is his second test century against New Zealand. Whereas the year 2022, is his fourth test century. Before this, Babar Azam also scored centuries in Tests against Australia, Sri Lanka and England in the year 2022.

Before the start of this Test match, there were continuous discussions that Babar should be removed from the Test captaincy. A few days ago, under the captaincy of Babar, Pakistan had been humiliated by a clean sweep in the Test series at home by England 0-3. After this embarrassment, there was a demand to remove Babar from the captaincy, but with this century, Babar has given a befitting reply to those critics. 

With this century, Babar Azam breaks Ricky Ponting’s record for scoring the most fifty-plus score as a captain in a calendar year in international cricket. The former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting smashed 24 fifty-plus scores in 2005 and now Babar Azam has scored 25 fifty-plus scores this year.

Babar Azam also becomes the leading runs scorer in 2022 in all across formats. Currently, he is having 2485 runs in the year 2022 with an average of 53.85 in 44 matches scoring 8 hundred and 18 fifties this year. He also overtakes Mohammad Yusuf's 2435 runs, the most scored by a Pakistani batter in a calendar year across formats.