He will get a 100: Babar Azam 'almost' fulfills Mickey Arthur's bold prediction

Pakistan are undergoing a horrendous tour of Australia, where their inexperienced bowling attack and misfiring batting-unit (sans Babar Azam) has come under the scanner against a relentless Australian team.

One of the few heartening things to have come out for Pakistan from this tour is the making of Babar Azam- the Test batsman. Azam scored a nonchalant century in the first Test in Brisbane and when everyone else was falling around him like ninepins, during the first innings of the pink-ball, it was only Babar- courtesy his solid defence and pristine stroke- who put up any sort of resistance to the Australian bowlers.

Babar continued the same on the third day and if not for those three runs, the champion right-handed batsman would have registered his second ton on Australian soil, something which former coach Mickey Arthur had predicted at the end of Day 2.

Mickey Arthur’s prediction on Babar Azam comes true…Almost!

Azam, who had added 105 runs with Yasir Shah nicked off to Mitchell Starc for 97.

“Babar Azam is a class act; He could go on tomorrow provided we get ‘Ricky Ponting’ Yasir Shah to stay with him for a little bit, and if Mohammad Abbas can hang around, Babar can get a hundred. You watch Babar and how he is transferring his weight or you look at the positions he is making, it’s positive, it’s decisive and it’s solid and they don’t look like breaching his defence either,” Arthur was quoted as saying by Pakpassion.

Mickey had also hoped for Pakistan to show some fight on the third day, and courtesy Babar Azam (97) and Yasir Shah (74*), the visitors did exactly that, lending some sort of respectability to the first innings total.

“Everybody loses in Test cricket – you win some and you lose some – but the key is how you lose. I just hope Pakistan tomorrow, come out fighting, I hope they come out tomorrow and show a passion, they show a desire and hunger to try salvage some pride out of this tour because if they don’t, I feel that this Test match could be finished tomorrow,” Arthur said.