‘We were both in disbelief’: Robinson recalls dismissing Babar Azam twice

England pacer, Ollie Robinson, in an interview with Wisden, recalled dismissing Pakistan captain, Babar Azam, in the first innings of the second Test in Multan between Pakistan and England last year.

Azam was batting on 75 runs in the first innings when he was clean bowled by Robinson.

“It clipped the crack. Beautiful. And, I mean it is probably the first shot he [Babar] has played in the series of any aggression against me. He had been quite defensive against the short stuff. If he had played it defensively, he might have got half an edge on it, but he played that big drive,” Robinson said.

“I remember it hitting the wickets and the whole ground just went dead silent. I looked up and saw Babar’s face. We were both, like, ‘How has this just happened?’ And I put my tongue out at him. When I saw it after, I was thinking, ‘What are you doing? Putting your tongue out at Babar Azam?’ We were both in that much disbelief. We didn’t’ know what to do,” he added.

A day later, Pakistan were chasing a 355-run target to level the three-match series. The Pakistan fans were banking on Babar to play a vital role but he could only muster a single run.

If I’ve crunched the numbers correctly, Ollie Robinson v Babar Azam in this Test – 7 balls, 0 runs, stumps hit twice – is the first instance in men’s Tests of a bowler bowling out the opposition number 3 in both innings without conceding a run. #PAKvENG

— Andy Zaltzman (@ZaltzCricket) December 11, 2022

Robinson bowled a delivery with brilliant seam movement which Babar let go. It proved to be a fatal leave from Babar, who didn’t take into account the movement off the pitch; the ball took a sharp turn and hit the stumps. Hence, Pakistan skipper was cleaned up by the pacer twice in 24 hours.

Pakistan went on to lose the thrilling match by 26 runs and were eventually whitewashed 3-0 by the visitors.