LONDON: Pakistan batsman Babar Azam will miss the remainder of the two-match series against England after fracturing a bone in his left forearm on the second day of the first Test at Lord’s on Friday.

The 23-year-old right-hander top-scored with 68 to help the tourists reach 350-8 but retired hurt before the close of play after being struck by a Ben Stokes delivery.

“In that last session we took him off the field because he couldn’t grip his bat properly, we treated him for pain,” Pakistan physiotherapist Cliffe Deacon said in an interview on the Pakistan Cricket Board’s official Twitter account https://twitter.com/TheRealPCBMedia. “We decided to do a precautionary X-ray at the end of the day’s play ... when we got to the hospital the X-ray confirmed that there was a fracture of the forearm, just above the wrist.”

“Normally with these sort of fractures [recovery] varies between four to six weeks.”

Published in Dawn, May 27th, 2018