The seven-match series of three Tests, three ODIs and and a solitary T20 International game between Pakistan and Australia concluded a few days ago. Pakistan hosted Australia after almost 24 years in this interesting battle of ups and downs, being finally edged out 3-2 in an entertaining contest between two fine teams. Both sides had much to prove; Australia had a patchy record in matches played in Asia, while Pakistan were facing the top side in the world which had trounced them regularly in the recent past in all three formats of the modern game.

Many new records were established during these seven matches, with placid pitches ensuring that the batting performances heavily outnumbered the bowling feats witnessed during this three format contest.

In the first Test in Rawalpindi Imam-ul-Haq and Abdullah Shafique became the third Pakistani opening duo to score century partnerships in both innings of a Test. In October 2003, Imran Farhat and Taufeeq Umar had shared opening century partnerships in both innings against South Africa in Lahore, with stands of 109 and 134. In November 2021, Abdullah Shafique and Abid Ali had emulated this feat against Bangladesh in Chattogram, with partnerships of 146 and 151.

In Rawalpindi, Shafique and Imam put on 105 runs for the opening wicket in the first innings and followed this with an unbeaten stand of 252 in the second innings. This was the first time in cricket history that an opening pair had shared both a century and a double century stand in the two innings of a Test, with the double century stand being a 250 runs plus effort.

Shafique became the first batsman to share in twin opening century partnerships in two of his initial three Tests. In fact, in each of the first five innings of his Test career, Shafique was involved in opening partnerships of more than fifty, with stands of 146, 151, 59, 105 and 252* respectively, for a total aggregate of 713 runs. No Test opener has begun his Test career with a more emphatic statement.

This was the first time that Pakistan had opened with century partnerships in both innings of a Test against Australia. Furthermore, the 252 runs opening stand between Shafique and Imam in Pakistan's second innings was their highest ever first wicket partnership against Australia, beating the 249 run tally put on by Khalid Ibadullah and Abdul Kadir at Karachi in 1964.

Shafique (136*) and Imam (111*) both scored individual centuries during this partnership, becoming the fourth Pakistani opening pair to do so in a Test. Previously this landmark had been achieved by Aamir Sohail (160) and Ijaz Ahmed (151) versus West Indies in Karachi in 1997, Saeed Anwar (101) and Taufiq Umar (104) against Bangladesh at Multan in 2001 and by Shan Masood (135) and Abid Ali (174) versus Sri Lanka at Karachi in 2019.

In the first innings of the Rawalpindi Test, Shafique and Imam's opening partnership of 105 was followed by a 2nd wicket stand of 208 between Imam and Azhar Ali and a 3rd wicket partnership of 101 by Azhar Ali and Babar Azam. This was just the second time in Australia's Test history that they had commenced a Test series by conceding century partnerships for the first three wickets. They had earlier done so against England in the opening Test of the 1932-33 bodyline Test series at Sydney.

It was also the first time in 51 years that Australia had conceded 100 plus opening partnerships twice in a Test match, with Boycott and Edrich having reached this milestone against them at Adelaide in 1971.

This was the third time in the history of cricket that there were three hundred-plus opening stands in a Test, as Usman Khwaja and David Warner also put together an opening partnership of 156 runs for Australia, to add to the twin century stands by the Pakistani openers. The previous two occasions when this had been accomplished was in the Australia vs England Test at Adelaide in 1947, and in an India versus vs Bangladesh encounter at Mirpur in 2007.

Interestingly, this was the first time ever that Pakistan lost just one wicket on the first day of a Test, after electing to bat. In another first, Australia used eight bowlers on the opening day of a Test, while a record of eleven bowlers were used on the last day of the Rawalpindi Test, nine by Australia and two by Pakistan. This Test marked only the second time that Australia's top four batsmen each scored fifty in the same Test innings in the subcontinent. The only previous instance was when Matthew Hayden, Simon Katich, Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey did so against India at Delhi in 2008.

At Rawalpindi, Imam became the first batsman to score his initial Test century after having already compiled seven ODI centuries. In another amusing quirk of fate Pakistan's Fawad Alam did not bat, bowl or take a catch in this Test, the last Pakistani player to do this was Asif Mujtaba against New Zealand at Wellington in 1994.

In the second Test at Karachi Pakistan were shot out for 148 in reply to Australia's 556 for 9 declared. Their deficit of 408 runs was their highest ever in any home Test, beating the 376 run deficit they had incurred when India had scored 600 in response to Pakistan's first innings total of 224 at Rawalpindi in 2004.

Pakistan survived 171.4 overs or 1030 balls in the fourth innings to save the Karachi Test. They became the first team in five day cricket, and the second team overall in Test matches, to play 1000-plus balls in the fourth innings to save a Test. The only other team to do so was England who played 218.2 eight-ball overs, or 1746 balls, in the fourth innings of the timeless Test against South Africa at Durban in 1939.

At Karachi, Pakistan's score of 443 for 7 was also the sixth highest fourth innings total by any side in Test history. This was also Pakistan's longest fourth innings outing in Test matches against any opponent, the previous longest being 145 overs or 870 balls, against Australia at Brisbane in 2016.

Babar Azam, the Pakistani captain, scored 196 invaluable runs in the fourth innings to save the match for Pakistan. This was the highest score by a Pakistani batsman in the fourth innings of a Test, beating Younis Khan's 171 against Sri Lanka at Pallekele in 2015.

Babar's inning was also the highest ever by a captain of any nationality in the fourth innings of a Test, beating Mike Atherton's score of 185 against South Africa in Johannesburg in 1995. It was also the highest innings by any player in he fourth innings of a Test against Australia, the previous best being 192 by Kumar Sangakarra at Hobart in 2007.

During his mammoth innings, Babar stayed at the crease for 603 minutes. This is the second longest individual knock in the fourth innings of a Test, only 40 minutes short of Mike Atherton's long vigil of 643 minutes versus South Africa in 1995.

Babar faced 425 deliveries during his innings, the fourth highest number ever faced in the fourth innings of a Test by any batsman. Only Mike Atherton (492) versus South Africa in 1995, Herbert Sutcliffe (462) against Australia in 1928 and Sunil Gavaskar (443) versus England in 1979 have done better.

Babar also became the third player in the game to score a century in all three formats while captaining the side.

Babar's fourth wicket partnership of 228 runs with Abdullah Shafique was Pakistan's highest fourth wicket stand on home soil. Constructed in 524 balls, it was the longest 4th wicket partnership ever in terms of balls faced, surpassing the previous best of 500 deliveries faced by India's Deep Dasgupta and Rahul Dravid versus South Africa in 2001.

Mohammad Rizwan's unbeaten knock of 104 in the Karachi Test was the second by a Pakistani wicketkeeper in the fourth innings of a Test. Earlier Moin Khan had scored 117 not out against Sri Lanka at Sialkot in 1995.

This was a specially rewarding Test series for the openers. The eleven opening stands in the three Tests generated 844 runs at an average of 84.40 with three centuries and three fifties. This is the best average ever for openers in a Test series with at least 10 opening partnerships. In total, the four opening batsmen, Abdullah Shafique, Imam-ul-Haq, Usman Khwaja and David Warner scored 1432 runs between them, for an average of 79.55. This is the highest run aggregate for openers in any Test series of three matches or more.

Khwaja's aggregate of 496 runs in the series is the second highest ever by a visiting opener in Pakistan, behind only Mark Taylor's 513 runs in 1998. Khwaja's series average of 165.33 was also the second highest ever by an opening batsman in a Test series in which the batsman had played at least five innings. Shoaib Mohammad with an average of 169.00 against New Zealand in 1990 heads this list.

As a contribution to the records from the bowlers, in Pakistan's first innings in the final Test at Lahore, Australia dismissed Pakistan's last five batsmen for only four runs, creating the worst five-wicket collapse in Pakistan's Test history.

The ODI series also produced many records. In the opening ODI Travis Head racked up Australia's fastest ODI hundred against Pakistan in only 70 balls. Babar Azam became the second fastest batsman to reach 4000 ODI runs, achieving this figure in 82 innings, narrowly missing Hashim Amla's record of 81 innings.

During the second ODI Imamul Haq notched up his 9th ODI century, becoming the fastest batsman ever to do so. He accomplished this in his 48th innings, ahead of Hashim Amla who took 52 innings and Quentin de Kock who managed it in 53 innings. After 48 ODI innings Imam's tally of 2232 runs was second only to Hashim Amla who had 2462 runs at this point.

The target of 349 chased by Pakistan in the second ODI was their highest successful chase in ODI cricket. Their previous highest was 327 against Bangladesh in 2014. Pakistan had scored more runs in an ODI chase only once - 361 for 7 against England in 2019, albeit in a losing cause, while pursuing a total of 374. This was also the first instance of Pakistan chasing down a 300-plus target against Australia, and their score of 352 for 4 was Pakistan's highest ever ODI total against the Aussies.

Pakistan's victory came after 10 consecutive ODI defeats against Australia and it also ended their 16-match winless streak against the Aussies in all formats of the game.

Babar Azam scored centuries in both the second and third ODIs. His second ODI century made him the fastest batsman to reach 15 ODI hundreds in a record number of 83 innings, bettering Hashim Amla's previous best of 86 innings, while his 16th hundred, in the 3rd ODI, came in his 84h innings, again overtaking Amla's previous best of 94 innings. With his 16th ODI hundred Babar also became the first Pakistani captain to score 5 ODI centuries as a skipper.

Babar also set a record for the batsman with highest percentage of centuries scored in ODIs. His 16 hundreds in 84 innings mean that 19.04% of his visits to the crease result in centuries. Imam has the second highest percentage of 18.36%, derived from 9 hundreds in 49 innings.

Imam also set a new record for scoring the most runs against Australia in a three match ODI series. His aggregate of 298 runs in the series surpassed the 289 scored by Graham Gooch in 1985.

In this glut of statistical accomplishments one man stands out. Babar Azam, who was in truly sumptuous form, was the batsman of the series with scores of 36, 36, 196, 67, 55, 57, 114, 105* and 66, in all three formats, for a total of aggregate 732 runs at an average of 91.5, including 3 centuries and 4 fifties. His seven consecutive scores of fifty-plus in internationals have set a landmark that will be hard to overtake. Such was Babar's dominance throughout the series that at it's conclusion Australia's white-ball captain Aaron Finch said he was "glad we don't have to bowl to Babar anymore."

– Dr Salman Faridi is a senior surgeon, poet, sports aficionado and an avid reader with a private collection of over 7000 books.

salmanfaridilnh@hotmail.com