India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin on Tuesday hailed Babar Azam for scoring a century against all odds in the ongoing second Test against Australia at the National Stadium, Karachi.
Set a target of 506 against Australia in the ongoing second Test, Pakistan was in a precarious position at 21/2 but Pakistan skipper Babar Azam rose to the challenge to score a ton against all odds that kept his side in the game. India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin took note of Babar Azam’s performance and hailed the stylish right-hander for his fighting hundred. As a result of this performance, Ashwin now thinks that the match would have an interesting Day 5 with all three results possible. “Babar Azam, going to be an exciting finish tomorrow. #PAKvAUS,” tweeted Ashwin.
At stumps on Day 4, Pakistan’s score read 192/2 with the hosts needing 314 more runs to win the Test and go 1-0 up in the series. Babar along with opener Abdullah Shafique stitched together an unbeaten stand of 171 runs for the third wicket. Babar and Shafique were batting on 102 and 71 respectively.
After stumps, Babar spoke about his mindset of entering the field with a big target on board. “This knock means a lot to me, the team needed it. Fortunately, I have managed to get a good partnership with Shafique. The match is not over yet, so we need to continue playing in the same way, and the other batters also need to step up,” said Babar.
“After the first innings, we practiced in the nets how to counter their reverse swing, just that we need to play slightly late,” the Pakistan skipper further added.
For Australia, Nathan Lyon and Cameron Green scalped one wicket each on Day 4 and the visitors would hope for the ball to reverse on the final day. Mitchell Starc had shown great quality with the ball in the first innings as he returned with three wickets to bundle out Pakistan for 148.
Australia had scored 556/9 in their first innings before declaring and after batting for 22.3 overs in the second innings, the visitors called time, setting Pakistan a target of 506.
