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Harare: Pakistan bat in second Zimbabwe Test

Dunya News

36-year-old Tabish Khan is making his Test debut for Pakistan.

HARARE (Dunya News) – Pakistan skipper Babar Azam won the toss against Zimbabwe in the second and final Test match and decided to bat first at the Harare Sports Club on Friday.

Two players, one each from Pakistan and Zimbabwe, are making their Test debuts. The Green Caps have named Tabish Khan in the playing XI. He has replaced Faheem Ashraf while Luke Jongwe is making debut for the hosts.

36-year-old Tabish has been a consistent performer at the domestic level in Pakistan with 598 first-class wickets.

Pakistan routed Zimbabwe by an innings and 116 runs in the first match in Harare and are keen to explore their fast bowling reserves ahead of a three-Test tour of the West Indies in July and August.

Tabish is not the oldest man to make his Pakistan Test bow. That honour belongs to Miran Bux who was 47 years and 284 days old when he played against India at Lahore in the 1954-55 season.

Pakistan are aiming to complete a clean sweep of series wins on their southern Africa tour. They defeated South Africa in one-day and T20 series before moving north to win a T20 series against Zimbabwe.

Pakistan dominated the first Test on a slow Harare pitch, with Hasan Ali mainly responsible for bowling out the home side for under 200 in both innings. Hasan had match figures of nine for 89.

Fawad Alam hit a century for Pakistan in a solid batting performance in which the only top-order batsman to fail was skipper Babar Azam, who was out first ball to Donald Tiripano.

But if it was a rare batting failure for Pakistan’s star, Babar had the satisfaction of becoming the first Pakistan captain to win his first three Tests in charge - a record which he is expected to improve upon in the coming days.

With inputs from AFP 

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