Pakistan Cricket Team finally have a breath of fresh air in the ongoing second Test match of the series against England in the Multan Cricket Ground. Pakistan’s star batter, Babar Azam, was dropped from this Test after strings of poor performance in the longest format of the game.
Kamran Ghulam, the 29-year-old, was selected a the replacement of Azam and he came in to bat at number four in the second Test match. Much to the delight of the fans, the man scored a century in his debut game for Pakistan in Test cricket.
He smashed his century in 192 balls with nine boundaries and one six. Ghulam brought up his maiden century with a boundary off Joe Root in the 74th over of the Pakistan innings. He stood up and kept the faith of the selectors.
There was huge pressure on him as he was replacing one of the all-time greats of Pakistan. There was a huge uproar throughout the Pakistan cricket fraternity after the fan favourite, Babar Azam, was dropped from the squad for the final two Test matches against England.
Kamran Ghulam becomes 13th Pakistan batter to score a century on Test debut
Ghulam emerged as the 13th Pakistani batter to score a century in his debut Test match. He was finally dismissed on 118 runs off 124 balls. Babar Azam was under a lot of pressure after he went 18 innings without scoring a half-century in the longest format of the game. He was struggling in all formats in international cricket with his last century coming in the Asia Cup 2023 opener against Nepal.
Azam was clearly looking out of touch and failing to score on the wickets that had no help for the bowlers. There was additional pressure on him given that Pakistan were losing Test matches at home and Azam did not stand up to save his team with some good innings.