Azhar Ali Nears Big Record as 2nd Test Begins in Karachi Today:
Pakistan Cricket Team meets the Australian side in the 2nd Test of the 3 match series at Karachi. After the first Test ended in a draw, both teams are in for a result oriented Test at Karachi. At Rawalpindi, we saw the batsmen dominate the major part of the game however in Karachi it is expected that the pitch will be supportive for the spinners and that is the reason why Australia is playing Mitchell Swepson in this game.In the first Test, Imam-ul-Haq, Abdullah Shafique and Azhar Ali smashed centuries for Pakistan and kept on improving their batting records.
Speaking of records, a big record is awaiting the veteran batsman Azhar Ali. Azhar Ali scored his 19th Test century in the first against Australia at Rawalpindi. Now he’s one shy of his 20th hundred in Test Cricket which is not less than a milestone. Only 4 batsmen from Pakistan have scored 20 or more Test Centuries and Azhar Ali could be the 5th. Younis Khan holds the record for most centuries in Test Cricket by a Pakistani Batsman with 34 Test Centuries to his name. Younis is followed by Inzamam-ul-Haq with 25 Test centuries, then Mohammad Yousuf has 24 Test Hundreds and Javed Miandad is 4th in this list with 23 Test hundreds. Now Azhar could be the 5th Pakistani Batsman to join this elite list of Pakistani batsmen with 20+ Test Hundreds.
Apart from this record, another likely record is for Shaheen Shah Afridi. Shaheen in his Test Career has 88 Test Wickets and he is 12 wickets away from a century of wickets in Test Cricket. Although Shaheen didn’t get many wickets in Rawalpindi, he can surely do some wonders at National Stadium Karachi. The 2nd Test begins at Karachi on Saturday 12th March 2022 with the series leveled at 0-0.
