Babar admitted that the layoffs meant it was disappointment rather than relief that dominated his emotions. “I’m very disappointed with both innings. I started well, but I didn’t finish well,” he said. “If you settle, you have to go much further. That’s why I was a little upset. There were only 15 minutes left.”
“The conditions here are different from those in Centurion,” Babar said. “When you come to South Africa, you don’t expect [the pitch will be so flat]. With the new ball, it was a little challenging, but once you settled in and established a partnership, it became easier. But there are some difficult moments; You saw a couple of overs from Maharaj to Shan that had some spin and bounce. So, roulette is a challenge for the batsman. But against the fast bowler, if you are prepared, just play your normal game.”
However, Babar felt some relief. After about two years without a Test fifty, he had scored three on the trot, a streak stretching back to the second innings at Centurion. However, all three dismissals were due to poor shot selection and not the players figuring it out.
“I should have capitalized during our partnership, but unfortunately that was not the case,” he said. “In the second innings, my partnership with Shan has helped us get back into the game a little bit. Tomorrow, we have to try to build a partnership, and the longer those partnerships are, the more pressure there will be on South Africa.”
But there’s a bigger picture, one that his continued struggle of late has put him in a better position to appreciate. He is Pakistan’s leading run-scorer in this series and now has something every batsman values - competitive time at the crease under his belt.
“Things change in life all the time,” he said. “I learned a lot during this time [of poor form] when I couldn’t do what I wanted to do, and when I couldn’t do the things that people expected of me. I kept telling myself to stay calm and believe that my ability and hard work would be vindicated and to try to enjoy it. But what was really important was to spend some time in the countryside and, fortunately, [that has happened this series]”.
