Azhar Ali- Pakistan's Glue at Number Three Over the Past Decade

Azhar Ali’s stats may not stand out among cricketers in Pakistan who have played as many Tests as him. His average of 42 is considerably lower than the legends in front, who are touching and have also crossed the 50 mark. He still finishes with 97 Tests and 5th on the Pakistan run-scoring charts which is an indicator of the longevity of a man who has seen Pakistan go through some incredible highs and lows.

When he came in the Pakistan team was about to head into tough period. It was in the early stages of his career where a match-fixing scandal saw Pakistan lose three players, leaving them with some rebuilding to do. With the Terrorism incident in 2009, Azhar Ali did not play a home Test until 2019. Over the period he oversaw the best of Younis Khan and Misbah Ul Haq, while supporting them towards the better parts of his career.

He was gritty, and full of character as Azhar Ali shaped some brilliant innings through his time. He stood in for Misbah as well, before taking the Test Captaincy in 2019. Following Sarfaraz Ahmed’s tenure, Azhar Ali got the privilege of doing the job for nine Tests. In his tenure, Pakistan had some good results winning both series under his leadership. His form and captaincy struggle in Australia though led to him losing the job.

He is the only Cricketer to make a triple-hundred in a day-night Test, and only Pakistan’s fourth to make a Test Triple Hundred. He is known for converting his hundreds into big scores, with a double century at the Melbourne Cricket Ground among his greatest achievements. With a lot of chopping and changing though, Azhar Ali had a silent start to his career. It was only after his first two years where he started to score big more consistently, starting with a string of low scores.

Towards the second half of his career though, Azhar Ali grew into his role as the rock. He was solid in defense in the middle-order, which was a trait throughout his career. The second half was more significant as he scored a large volume of his centuries following a dream 2016 season. He took a variety of roles and even headed out to open the batting with Pakistan struggling to find a suitable candidate for the role. His performance was good as he was deployed in a position that was not his.

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In fact, throughout his career, Azhar Ali went into positions that were not his. He was deployed at three on debut, which is one of the toughest spots in Test Cricket. Following the 2015 World Cup, Azhar Ali was the one to take ODI Captaincy even though he was not in the World Cup squad. It was after another sudden but brief captaincy tenure, this time in Test Cricket that Azhar Ali went into a dip in form.

There were glimpses of his best with a 141 in Southampton, and then a 185 earlier this year against Australia too. Those knocks helped define his unpredictability. Not known to be the most exciting, Azhar Ali took the challenge of chasing 302 in 60 overs with a daring century. He was not a crowd puller like Babar Azam and is far from being a noticed player. Despite playing 97 Tests, Azhar Ali is a player who has remained in a silent corner through his career, doing his job patiently. He loved Test Cricket to the core, which made him what he is today.

A dip though in the last few Tests and Pakistan’s management of players though see Azhar Ali falling short of 100 Tests. He was dropped for the second Test after failing to score on a flat Rawalpindi track, which have been the indicator that his time is up. After a career where he gave it his all for the Pakistan team, batting wherever needed, Azhar Ali finally moves on.

The Rock at number three leaves the field for one last time. With England white-washing Pakistan, the farewell is far from a perfect one. He walks back after a lot of big knocks, and finishes his a glorious career in the most contrary manner as he walks out without scoring for one last time.