There are players who rise to the top of the game in the fast-paced and frequently unpredictable world of cricket with seemingly faultless performances. Babar Azam is one such player. He is the star of Pakistani cricket and the only player in all of cricket who is placed in the top three in all three formats.
Pakistan skipper Babar Azam is ruling the world with his tremendous batting. In terms of Test, T20 cricket and in particular, in ODIs, his batting records speaks for itself. But as a batter every player has a bad patch in his career, it may be overall or maybe against a particular type of bowling. In recent times many people think that Babar Azam against left-arm spin struggled in test matches. It’s time to uncover the truth.
Is Babar Azam really struggling against Left-Arm Spin?
Although the record-making master Babar’s career has been nothing short of amazing, each player has flaws. Despite their strong points, left-arm spin spinners are Babar’s weakest point in recent times. But his numbers are not so poor but as far as Babar calibre, it looks ordinary for the fans.
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The data do not lie when it comes to facing left-arm spinners like Keshav Maharaj and Prabath Jayasuriya, despite his impressive numbers against quality bowling. The concluded test series between Pakistan and Sri Lanka provided yet another example that how Babar Azam struggled against Left-Arm Spiner Jayasuriya.
Statical View of Babar Azam Against Left-Arm Spin
Under the leadership of Babar Azam, Pakistan developed a new culture in the team, as a result, team Pakistan defeated Sri Lanka in their home soil comprehensively. But the performance of the Pakistani skipper as a batter is very poor in this series. He just scored 76 runs in three innings with an average of 25.33. More importantly, left-arm spinner Prabath Jayasuriya dismissed Babar all three times in that series.
But if a batter is getting dismissed by the same type of bowling then it does not necessarily mean it is his weakness. The Men in Green captain records against left-arm spinners are not too bad. His numbers against left-arm spinners speak for themselves. So look at his numbers in different formats of the games against this particular type of bowler.
Babar Azam Against Left-Arm Spin in Test
| Innings | 39 |
| Runs | 693 |
| Average | 53.30 |
| Dismissals | 13 |
Babar Azam Against Left-Arm Spin in ODIs
| Innings | 36 |
| Runs | 559 |
| Average | 111.80 |
| Dismissals | 5 |
Babar Azam Against Left-Arm Spin in T20Is
| Innings | 44 |
| Runs | 411 |
| Average | 82.20 |
| Dismissals | 5 |
Babar Azam Overall records Against Left Arm spinners
| Innings | 119 |
| Runs | 1663 |
| Average | 72.30 |
| Dismissals | 23 |
These records are good but if we talk about a particular format and against a particular type of bowler you can say that Babar Azam against left-arm spin bowling is struggling sometimes. For instance, this thing is not acceptable to their fans although it is just a game of cricket, some fans are too emotional and some critics criticise Babar which is baseless in that particular situation.
Babar Azam Against particular left-arm spinners in the Test
In the past, Men in Green Captain struggled against particular bowlers in test matches the like of Keshav Maharaj and Prabath Jayasuriya. Look at his stats against these bowlers:
Against Prabath Jayasuriya
| Balls faced | 324 |
| Runs | 172 |
| Average | 28.66 |
| Dismissals | 6 |
Against Keshav Maharaj
| Balls faced | 95 |
| Runs | 46 |
| Average | 15.33 |
| Dismissals | 3 |
These stats show how much babar azam is struggling against these two. But it is not much alarming but it does mean Babar just ignores it. Because if a player is dismissed by the same type of bowler many times and does not improve his technique against them then he can expose, and everyone tries this trick to dismiss him. In Babar Azam’s case, it is not a big problem since he has a great ability to learn.
