STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
Follow Us818 runs in 12 innings, no scores below 20, 30+ balls faced 12/12 times, an average of 90.88 and seven 50+ scores, including an unbeaten double century — Pakistan’s Saud Shakeel has had one of the greatest starts to a Test career any cricketer has ever had in the history of the game.
Up until the Galle Test, Shakeel’s achievements were downplayed with many citing that he got ‘lucky’ by playing each of his first five Tests at home, but in Galle, the 27-year-old proved every single doubter wrong by smashing an utterly remarkable 208* when Pakistan were staring down the barrel at 101/5, at that point still trailing Sri Lanka by a mammoth 211 runs.
More than half of Shakeel’s runs in that innings came whilst he was batting with the tail, and the youngster’s gargantuan effort was duly rewarded as Babar Azam’s side eventually went on to script a very impressive four-wicket win.
The 208* was a history-making moment in itself, for it was the first double century by any Pakistan batter in WTC history, but there’s more: the knock has now given Shakeel a golden opportunity to create more history.
Shakeel can go level with Bradman
It sounds absurd, but indeed, in the second Test at the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo, Shakeel has the chance to level Sir Don Bradman and become the joint second-fastest in Test history to 1000 Test runs.
At 818 currently, Shakeel needs 182 runs in the first innings of the Colombo Test to equal Sir Don Bradman and breach the 1000-run barrier in Tests in just 13 innings.
A very big ask, but considering the way Shakeel has started his Test career, you simply cannot rule the possibility out.
Should he somehow manage to do it, he’ll be the fastest to 1000 runs in Tests in 93 years.
Even should Shakeel miss out on the Don’s record, he realistically can pretty comfortably become the fastest to 1000 Test runs this century. That record is currently jointly held by Graeme Smith, Gary Ballance and Harry Brook, who all got to the landmark in 17 innings.
To go past the aforementioned trio and become the outright record-holder for this century, Shakeel will need to score 182 more runs in his next 4 innings. Very gettable indeed.
Even should he miss out on the aforementioned record, Shakeel can still comfortably become the outright record-holder for Pakistan, even in the case of him having a couple of bad Tests.
As it stands, the fastest Pakistan batter to 1000 Test runs is Saeed Ahmed, who got to the landmark in 20 innings back in 1959. Shakeel needs 182 more runs in 7 innings (26 runs per innings) to break this record. Without sounding too dismissive, this does seem like a cakewalk from here, for Shakeel.
If we are talking about Pakistan batters this century, then Taufeeq Umar, Abid Ali and Abdullah Shafique are the men to beat. They all brought up their 1000th Test run in their 24th Test innings.
Unquestionably, for Shakeel, there will be a regression to the mean sooner or later; this purple patch will not last forever and this dream run will end at some point.
But a first-class average of 54.06 suggests that, even when the inevitable dip occurs, he’ll still be a prolific run-getter for Pakistan and continue to be a rock in the middle-order.
At this point in time, however, Shakeel has no reason whatsoever to worry about a potential dip. These next few matches are his chance to forever etch his name in the history books.
