Pakistan captain Babar Azam registered his 8th Test century on Saturday against England in front of a lively Rawalpindi crowd that had come to see exactly this.
The fans had already been anticipating a big knock from the Pakistani skipper because of the flat and dull nature of the pitch rolled out at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, and some even lamented Babar missing a double hundred by 64 runs!
Babar Azam, who scored a well-complied 134 runs off 168 balls with the help of 15 fours and 2 sixes, is the third centurion of Pakistan’s first innings after openers Abdullah Shafique (114) and Imam-ul-Haq (121).
This was in reply to England’s mammoth first innings total of 657, which they scored in 101 overs! England had four centurions in their innings and Pakistan, who are 499/7 at the end of Day 3’s play and are 158 runs behind, have had three so far.
Fans troll “flat-track bully” Babar Azam:
Babar Azam, the Pakistani captain, was trolled heavily on Twitter despite notching up a hundred against England. Netizens mocked the 28-year-old for piling up big runs either on absolute flat tracks such as this one in Rawalpindi – and similar non-threatening pitches had been made during the 3-Test home series against Australia, when also Babar hit a 196 and two fifties – or against weaker opponents.
The 3-Test series earlier was won by Australia 1-0 with two drawn Tests, and now this Rawalpindi Test vs England is also going to end in a likely draw, denting Pakistan’s chances of reaching the World Test Championship final while England is already knocked out of the race to the final.
The PCB and its chairman, Ramiz Raja, too, were trolled and criticized heavily during the Australia series, and now for producing such flat pitches where their batsmen can score big runs and increase their average and entertain the fans with some glorious stroke-making but compromise, or even all but eliminate a chance of recording a win, because bowling out an opposition twice on these surfaces has been as tough as boiling the ocean.
As for Babar Azam, here are some tweets that trolled him in spite of his century:
Flat track bully #BabarAzam𓃵
— Alii (@AliTheMir) December 3, 2022
Flat track Merchant 😂😂😂
SENA Test 💯
Kraigg Brathwaite – 3
Flat track merchant (Zimbu) – 1 😂😂#BabarAzam #AUSvWI #PAKvsEng #EngvsPak @daniel86cricket @TheRealPCB https://t.co/C3q8k0Jkwf pic.twitter.com/diw5qYFFzM— Qudrat_Ka_Nizaam__𓃵_🏏👑 (@43_53_99_alout) December 3, 2022
Pakistan are making flat tracks for babar azam to score 100 and not caring about wtc points..they did this against australia too than lost and now again 😭😭😹😹
— itachi Kakashi (@itachiKakashi14) December 1, 2022
Babar Azam is easily the most loved cricketer of this era. Scored 100 on a flat track and he is trending at no 1 rn 😂
— Aisha 💫 (@Aaaish919) December 3, 2022
What a 100 for Flat track Bully , Gobar Babar Azam garbage
#EngvsPak pic.twitter.com/Q8aorhuiC4
— soumyajit (@soumyajit18das) December 3, 2022
Watching this flat track bully called Babar Azam 😅 pic.twitter.com/8RlesAn6Rt
— Top Dyan 🇩🇪 (@SlevinIII) December 3, 2022
50m flat track Lahori boundries merchant Babar Azam
— Jahazi (@Oye_Jahazi) December 1, 2022
Babar Azam Requested a flat track for him and his batters and after asking Ramiz Raja for his views on dead pitch, he said , don’t you want to see Babar Century against England. 🤣
Imagine the audacity of his fans to compare that flat track bully with Virat Kohli.😭#PAKvENG pic.twitter.com/uWuDnaFuKz
— Akshat (@AkshatOM10) December 1, 2022
Flat track bully Babar #PAKvsEng pic.twitter.com/LG2XBb4Xyc
— Jahazi (@Oye_Jahazi) December 3, 2022
Aise pitch par to Deepak Chahar bhi 100 maardega yaar..
— Jatin Khandelwal (@jr_khandelwal) December 3, 2022
