1,300 days, 36 innings, no hundred: How Babar Azam’s Test century drought became a long-running story
Babar Azam's quest for a Test century continues as he remains without a hundred since December 2022. Over the course of seventeen Tests and thirty-six innings, he has frequently come close with several fifties but has yet to convert those into three-figure scores. His challenges surged notably in 2024, despite a temporary revival in South Africa.
Since the summer of 2022, Pakistan's Babar Azam has gone 1,300 days and 36 innings without reaching the century mark in Test cricket. The milestone seemed within reach as he scored 161 against New Zealand in December 2022, his ninth Test hundred of a stellar 2022 when he amassed 1,184 runs. However, a string of low scores followed across tours of Sri Lanka, Australia, Bangladesh, and England.
At the end of 2024, Babar's efforts ended with only 30 in the first Test against England, no fifty in between, and eventually 30 again in the second Test. The wait continued into 2025, with the 81 he scored against South Africa in early February being his highest score of the year. Despite a promising 88 in the second Test against the West Indies, Babar fell short after being run out.
The 2026 season began with missed opportunities, including 68 and 47 in the Bangladesh series, 6 in the England first innings, and 8 in the second innings. Despite these setbacks, Babar remains the second-highest ranked Test batsman in the ICC rankings, but the elusive century remains just out of reach.
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