‘You have a lot to achieve,' Shan Masood to Babar Azam on his 50th Test match

PERTH: Former Pakistan skipper and star batsman Babar Azam is playing his 50th Test match in Perth against Australia on Thursday (today). 

In acknowledgement of his stellar performance, newly-appointed Pakistan Test Captain Shan Masood presented Babar Azam a souvenir and a cap for playing his 50th red-ball match for the national team.

“You still have a lot to achieve. You have changed Pakistan's batting dynamics. You have proved that our batsmen can become world-class players,” Shan said.

He also said it was just the beginning and they would like to see him play 100 Tests, adding that many players had played cricket under Babar’s captaincy.

The captain also said that Babar Azam had scored in different arenas worldwide.

Babar thanked the Test skipper for his kind words.

After debuting in 2016, Babar Azam scored 3,772 runs in 88 innings of his 49 Test matches at a remarkable average of 47.7. He scored nine centuries and 26 half-centuries.

Australian captain Pat Cummins won the toss and decided to bat in the opening Test against Pakistan at Perth Stadium today.

The only change for Australia from the team that started their last Test against England at the Oval in July is the return of fit-again spinner Nathan Lyon in place of Todd Murphy.

Lyon has 496 Test wickets and is on the verge of joining just seven other Test bowlers to breach the 500 mark.

New Pakistan captain Shan included two debutants in his side, adding pacemen Aamer Jamal and Khurram Shahzad to an attack spearheaded by Shaheen Shah Afridi. They have no specialist spinner.

Pakistan have performed poorly in Australia, losing 14 Tests on the trot with their last win in 1995.