Babar Azam's Century Drought: A Test of Will

On Boxing Day in 2022, Babar Azam looked like a man who could bend Test cricket to his will. He peeled off 161 against New Zealand in Karachi, his ninth Test hundred, the crown jewel of a year in which he piled up 1,184 runs and four centuries. At that point, the question was how many more he would score, not whether the next one would arrive.

Since then, the numbers have turned from impressive to haunting. Seventeen Tests. Thirty-six innings. No hundred.

What began as a blip has hardened into a drought, and in 2026 it now feels like a running battle between one of Pakistan’s finest batters and a milestone he used to reach almost on demand.

From Karachi high to a long slide

The irony is that the drought began almost immediately after that Karachi epic. In the very next innings of the same Test, Babar fell for 14. In the second Test, still in Karachi, he scratched his way to 24 and 27. Nothing alarming, nothing dramatic. Just the start of a pattern.

Sri Lanka in 2023 brought more of the same: 13, 24, 39. Starts, hints, then silence. Australia, where great batters often define themselves, offered no release. Across three Tests he managed 21, 14, 1, 41, 26 and 23. The 41 in Melbourne briefly stood as his highest score of the post-161 period. It was also another innings that stopped just when it felt like it should be taking off.

The fluency remained. The authority at the crease remained. The conversion did not.

When a drought becomes a crisis

By 2024, the story had shifted. This was no longer just about centuries. Babar began to struggle even to reach fifty.

Against Bangladesh, he scraped together 0, 22, 31 and 11 in two Tests. For a batter of his stature, those numbers jarred. Then came England at home. On a Multan pitch where Shan Masood and Abdullah Shafique both reached three figures, the captain managed only 30, trapped lbw by Chris Woakes. That 30 did not just extend the wait for a hundred; it prolonged a run without even a half-century.

The pressure mounted. Questions grew louder. Babar’s answer finally came, at least partially, in South Africa at the end of the year.

At Centurion, he carved out 50 – his first Test fifty since that 161 against New Zealand. It felt like a small dam breaking. At Cape Town, he went further: 58 in the first innings, 81 in the second. He looked more like himself, commanding, balanced, in control of tempo. Yet when he fell 19 short of what would have been his 10th Test hundred, the story twisted again. Progress, but not deliverance.

2025: Better numbers, same nagging gap

He carried that 81 into 2025 as both a highlight and a reminder of what was missing. Across the two-Test series in South Africa, Babar compiled 193 runs, with three fifties and that top score of 81. The volume improved. The rhythm of his batting returned. The hundred stayed out of reach.

The rest of 2025 followed the same pattern. His calendar-year figures looked far healthier than in 2023 and 2024. He was back scoring, back contributing, back anchoring innings. Yet every time he settled, every time he looked set, the innings ended before three figures. His best for the year remained 81 – a fine score, but also a constant reminder of the ceiling he kept brushing without breaking.

2026: Run-out at 88 and a brutal twist in Port of Spain

If there was a moment when the drought felt almost cruel, it came in Port of Spain in 2026.

In the second Test against West Indies, Babar crafted 88, batting with the kind of assurance that usually signals trouble for bowlers and comfort for statisticians. Twelve runs short. Well set. The milestone in sight.

Then chaos. A mix-up. Brandon King’s throw. Run out for 88.

It was the sort of dismissal that lingers far longer than an edge or a misjudged drive. Another promising march towards that 10th Test hundred cut down, not by a great ball, but by a breakdown in communication.

The series itself underlined his strange new reality. In the first Test, he had played a fighting hand, finishing 58 not out in a fourth-innings chase that ended 90 runs short. Across the two matches, he scored 193 runs, including the 88 and an unbeaten 24, enough to nudge him briefly back into the ICC Test top 10. On paper, that looked like a player on the rise again.

On the scoreboard of his career, the column that mattered most remained stuck.

Bangladesh: Another opening, another miss

Before Pakistan landed in England, Bangladesh offered what looked like a softer runway. Babar responded with 68 and 47 in the two-Test series. Useful, important runs. The kind of contributions that steady a dressing room and frustrate opponents.

But they also fit the same maddening pattern. Starts. Control. Then an exit before the landmark. Nearly four years on from that Karachi 161, every score in the 60s, 70s or 80s now feels less like a platform and more like a reminder.

England: Injury, return, and two harsh blows

The latest chapter has played out in England, and it has been unforgiving.

Babar missed the first Test at Headingley after suffering a finger injury, watching from the sidelines as Pakistan were crushed by an innings and 103 runs. His absence only heightened the sense of dependence on him, the belief that his presence might have altered the script.

He declared himself 90 per cent fit for the second Test at Lord’s and returned to the XI, burdened not just with captaincy expectations but with the weight of his own record.

The comeback did not bring the response Pakistan needed.

In the first innings, with Pakistan under pressure, he lasted long enough only to add eight runs. Josh Tongue drew the edge, Jordan Cox accepted the catch, and Pakistan slumped to 110 all out. No statement innings. No defiance. Just another early departure.

Chasing 389 in the second innings, the stage was set again. A famous Lord’s chase, a world-class batter, a chance to flip the narrative. Instead, Jofra Archer’s pace and bounce forced an awkward response, the ball ballooning once more to Cox at third slip. Babar gone for 6.

Two innings at Lord’s. Eight and six. Two low scores. Still no century.

A race against time, not talent

This is not the story of a player who forgot how to bat. The strokes remain. The reputation remains. The respect from opponents remains. What has changed is the rhythm of his big scores, the ease with which he once seemed to turn 40 into 140.

For nearly four years, every innings has carried an extra layer of scrutiny. Every dismissal in the 30s, 50s, 80s has felt heavier than the number itself. The drought has outlasted home series and away tours, captaincy shifts and form fluctuations.

At some point, the question will not just be when Babar Azam scores his 10th Test hundred, but what that innings looks like – and what it unlocks once the weight finally lifts.