Babar Azam Joins Elite Club, Scores 4000 Runs Across Formats

During Thursday, December 26's Boxing Day Test between Pakistan and South Africa at SuperSport Park in Centurion, Babar Azam made his comeback to red-ball cricket.

 During Thursday, December 26's Boxing Day Test between Pakistan and South Africa at SuperSport Park in Centurion, Babar Azam made his comeback to red-ball cricket. Even though he was unable to overcome his lacklustre performance in the longest format, the former captain of Pakistan was able to join just two other cricket players on an elusive list.

Babar only managed four runs on Day 1 before being removed in the opening session. But this was sufficient to make him just the third player on the world circuit to score more than 4,000 runs in all three game types. He joined fellow countryman Virat Kohli and current India skipper Rohit Sharma, both of whom have amassed more than 4,000 runs in all three forms.

In his remarkable career, Babar has now amassed 4,001 runs from 56 Test matches, 5,957 runs from 123 ODIs, and 4,223 runs from 128 T20Is.

Pakistan reaches 209/9 at Tea on Day 1 after Dane Paterson scores five goals.

In the first Test of the two-match Test series, Temba Bavuma chose to field first after winning the toss. After putting on a 36-run partnership, Pakistani openers Shan Masood and Saim Ayub left the pitch in consecutive overs, despite their best efforts to see out the new ball.

When Paterson and Bosch caught fire, the tourists dropped from 36/0 to 56/4. Before the former was removed for a solid 54, Kamran Ghulam and Muhammad Rizwan stitched a much-needed 81-run partnership. Soon later, Rizwan too left as Pakistan found itself in serious difficulties once more.

Pakistan approached the 200-run milestone thanks to a counterattacking partnership of 47 runs off 53 balls from Salman Ali Agha and Aamer Jamal. However, with Pakistan looking at 189/9, three wickets fell quickly after one another. At the tea break on Day 1, Pakistan was at 209/9 thanks to an undefeated 20-run partnership between Abbas Afridi and Khurram Shahzad. Paterson has already given up 61 runs in 16 overs while scoring five runs. In 15 overs, Bosch has claimed four wickets.