Babar becomes first Pak captain to win four opening Tests

LAHORE: Pakistan cricket captain Babar Azam has broken another record by becoming the first Pakistani captain to win four opening Test matches.

This is the sixth straight series win for Pakistan, after the green shirts demolished Zimbabwe to clean sweep the two-match Test series. This makes it only the sixth time that Pakistan have won six or more consecutive series since 1952.

Pakistan defeated South Africa in Tests and T20Is at home earlier this year and then won the T20I and ODI series in the return series before wrapping up the African safari with T20I and Test series wins in Harare.

This is the sixth time when Pakistan have won six or more series consecutively. Pakistan won 13 straight series in 2011-12, nine consecutive series in 2015-16, eight successive series in 2001-02 and six straight series in 1993-94 and 2017-18.

Babar followed his two home Test wins against South Africa with victories by innings margins in Harare. The number-one ranked ODI batsman will now have a chance to get back to his run-scoring form in red-ball cricket when he captains Pakistan against the West Indies (two Tests) and Bangladesh (two Tests) in August and September, respectively.

PCB Chairman Ehsan Mani congratulated the side on the successful Africa tour and also thanked the players and support staff for enduring the tough and demanding Covid-19 protocols.

However, Mani said if Pakistan wanted to become “world beaters” they would have to continuously raise the quality of their cricket.

He appreciated the Pakistani cricketers for their resilience when it comes to bio-secure environments.

Pakistan’s next international assignment is three Super League ODIs and three T20Is against England from 8-20 July, followed by the tour to the West Indies.