Pakistan's Shakeel surpasses Australia's Smith, just below Bradman in batting average charts
Aug 23, 2024
Rawalpindi [Pakistan], August 23 : Pakistan's Saud Shakeel's batting average witnessed a huge boost after a fine century against Bangladesh at Rawalpindi on Thursday, becoming the second-highest among current Test batters with a minimum of 10 Test innings.
Shakeel accomplished this feat in the first Test against Bangladesh.
In the first innings, Shakeel smashed 141 in 261 balls. His composed knock consisted of nine well-placed fours and the runs came at a strike rate of 54.02.
Shakeel boosted his Test batting average to 65.17, the second-highest among current Test batters who have played a minimum of 10 innings. His batting average is higher than batting greats like Steve Smith, Kane Williamson and Virat Kohli, considered as three of the best players of the modern era, as per ICC. 
In the all-time average lists, with a minimum of 20 innings played, Shakeel is at number two in batting average stats below the legendary Australian batter Donald Bradman, who boasts of a brilliant average of 99.94.
Now, in 20 innings, Shakeel has completed his 1,000 runs in Tests, equalling batter Saeed Ahmed's record to become the joint-fastest Pakistan batter to reach the milestone. Both completed this milestone in 11 Tests and 20 innings.
In 11 Tests and 20 innings, Shakeel has scored 1,108 runs at an average of 65.17, with best score of 208*. He has scored three centuries and six fifties in his brief, but extremely promising Test career so far.
Shakeel has the most runs by an Asian batter in the first 20 innings of their Test career, the other Asian players having reached 1,000 runs or more in this span are Mayank Agarwal (India), Saeed Ahmed (Pakistan), Cheteshwar Pujara (India), Yashasvi Jaiswal (India) and Vinod Kambli (India).
Coming to the match, Bangladesh won the toss and put Pakistan to bat first. After Pakistan struggled at 16/3 with the loss of their top order, including skipper Babar Azam for a duck, Saim Ayub (56 in 98 balls, with four boundaries and a six) provided support to Shakeel in bringing Pakistan back on track with a 98 run partnership. Then a 240-run partnership with Mohammed Rizwan (171* in 239 balls, with 11 fours and three sixes) and a cameo from Shaheen Shah Afridi (29* in 24 balls, with a four and two sixes) took Pakistan to a big score of 448/6.
Hasan Mahmud (2/70) and Shoriful Islam (2/77) were the top bowlers for Bangladesh. Bangladesh ended the day two at 34/1.
