Pakistan captain Babar Azam scored a century on the third day of the first Test in Rawalpindi. Till stumps, the team has scored 499 runs for 7 wickets in the first innings against England. Salman Agha and Zahid Mahmood are unbeaten. Pakistan are still 158 runs behind England’s score (657 runs) in the first innings. Will Jacques took the maximum 3 wickets for England.

Opening partnership of 225 runs
Pakistan started the third day ahead with a score of 181/0. Opener Abdullah Shafiq and Imam-ul-Haq scored a century and shared a 225-run partnership. Shafiq scored 114 and Imam scored 121 runs. Azhar Ali, who landed at number three, could score only 27 runs. Captain Babar Azam, who came to bat after him, also scored a century. Babar scored 136 runs.

At one time, Pakistan, playing 412 runs for 3 wickets, lost 4 wickets within 85 runs. After this, the team scored 499 runs for 7 wickets till the end of the third day’s play.

Will Jacks took 3 wickets
Off-spinner Will Jacques took 3 wickets for England. He took the crucial wickets of Abdullah Shafiq and Babar Azam. Left arm spinner Jack Leach took 2 wickets. James Anderson and Ollie Robinson got one success each.

England’s Will Jacks celebrates after taking the wicket of Pakistan captain Babar Azam.

Babar Azam’s 8th Test century
This is Babar Azam’s 8th Test century. He has scored 5 centuries in Pakistan and 3 centuries abroad. This is his first Test century against England. He has scored one century each against Bangladesh and New Zealand and two against Australia. He has the highest number of 3 centuries in Test career against Sri Lanka.

657 runs in England’s first innings
England won the toss and elected to bat in the first Test. He scored 657 runs in 101 overs at a run rate of around 6.5. For England, 4 batsmen scored centuries in the first innings. Apart from opener Jack Crawley, Ben Duckett, Oli Pope and Harry Brook also played century innings. For Pakistan, Zahid Mahmood took 4 wickets and Naseem Shah took 3 wickets in the first innings.