Babar Azam hasn’t had the greatest time of it in his debut season in the Big Bash League (BBL) and no favours would’ve been done to his confidence when he and his captain and opening partner Steve Smith found themselves at the centre of a rather hilarious fielding error during Sydney Sixers’ match against Sydney Thunder.
The incident occured in the 16th over, in which Nic Maddinson lofted the fourth ball straight down the ground off Ben Manenti. Smith sprinted in from wideish long-off while Babar was closer at long on and the former seemed to slow down once he saw that the latter was closer. However, Babar never made an effort to stop the ball and almost jogged past it as it went to the boundary, leaving Smith holding his hands out in puzzlement.
There was almost a fielding gaffe next ball as well. This time, Smith did well to dive and stop the ball from reaching the boundary. He was well within control of the ball as it rolled in front of him but Babar started moving towards him to collect it. The Pakistan star made a belated decision to not do so and Smith in the end could make the throw without interruption. The on-air commentators made little effort to stifle their laughter. “Get out the way Babar!” said one of them.
“GET OUT THE WAY, BABAR!” 😂
How about these incidents with Steve Smith and Babar Azam 🫣 #BBL15 pic.twitter.com/Tnve7qNZvx
— KFC Big Bash League (@BBL) January 16, 2026
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However, this has been followed by what turned out to be Babar’s most productive outing with the bat this season and easily the best partnership thus far between him and Smith. Thunder captain David Warner scored an unbeaten 110 off 65 balls to take them to a score of 189/6. However, Smith matched and even surpassed what his old Australian teammate did, blasting his way to a 43-ball century. Babar at the other end fell on 47 off 39 balls but his opening partnership with Smith produced a whopping 141 runs in 12.1 overs. It took Babar’s tally for the season to 202 runs scored in nine matches at a strike rate of 108.60.
