Pakistan batsman Fawad Alam revealed that his mother told him he would get a hundred before the start of the ongoing second and final Test at Sabina Park, as the middle-order batsman has opened up about his record knock against the West Indies on Sunday (August 22).
The left-hander played a brilliant knock of 124* off 213 balls to take Pakistan to 302 in the first inning before Shaheen Shah Afridi (2 wickets) and Faheem Ashraf (one wicket) put the tourists in the driver's seat against the West Indies in the ongoing second Test at Jamaica.
It was Alam’s fourth Test century since his comeback in international cricket after 11 years on the sidelines. With the impressive century at Sabina Park, the 35-year-old became the fastest Pakistan and Asian Test batsman to reach five Test hundreds.
He became the fastest Test batsman from Asia to score five Test centuries in only 22 innings, surpassing the record held by India’s Cheteshwar Pujara in 24 innings. The veteran batsman is the 8th leading run-scorer in Test cricket with 513 runs in 11 innings at 57 this year so far.
Fawad told the PCB website: “When it rains, it pours. My mother had called before the first day of this Test. It was around 8 AM here and she said that I'd get a hundred. I don't know how she just knew. My dad also spoke and wanted me to raise my bat once in the West Indies too.”
He further added, “My motivation and inspiration have been my father. He's also been a cricketer and he's gone through his own ups and downs. So I listened to him and obeyed when times were tough. There are always hurdles, at the cricket and in your mind, and you need your family to support you in such times. I was also lucky to have other people around me who always motivated me and never let me feel that my time was done. I am so thankful to each one of them.”
On his 166-run partnership with Babar Azam (75) for the fourth wicket, Alam said: “We were 2 for 3 and conditions were very difficult. It was also very hot, let alone the pressure of the scorecard weighing heavy on us. I and Babar wanted to play as long as possible and take our team to safety.”
He continued, “We want to bowl them out quickly, give away as few runs as possible, and then we will stand a chance to force a result through our batting in the second innings.”
Fawad also opened up about his unique celebration after reaching the hundred, saying: “Azhar Ali and I were playing a four-day practice game in New Zealand and I got a century. After the game, Azhar and I decided on how we should celebrate if we scored a hundred in the Test series.”
He signed off by saying, “So when I did score a hundred, I remembered that and went ahead with it. It's inspired by Ertugrul Gazi who did it as a victory celebration.”
(With Cricbuzz Inputs)
