Watch: Babar Azam's bizarre move costs Pakistan five penalty runs

During the game against the West Indies, Pakistan cricket captain Babar Azam made a bizarre action that cost his side five penalty runs. The batting maestro put on the wicket-keeping gloves to field a ball, which cost him the penalty. The incident occurred at the start of the 28th over. Babar caught a throw from a fielder with a single gloved hand after Alzarri Joseph defended the first ball of the over on the leg-side.

According to Law 28 of the MCC’s Laws of Cricket, "No fielder other than the wicket-keeper shall be permitted to wear gloves or external leg guards". Furthermore, the Law specifies that if a fielder unlawfully fields the ball, the batting side would be given five runs.

After being awarded the penalty runs, Babar could be seen shaking his head and smiling with worry. The video of the same went viral over the internet.

Here is the viral video

Babar THE WICKET KEEPER 😭🤩😂#PAKvWI #BabarAzam𓃵 pic.twitter.com/leS2Hu51t1

— 𝙰𝙸𝙼𝙴𝙽 🇵🇰 (@AimenJavaid8) June 10, 2022

While the captain has never kept wickets in a professional game, he was seen wearing gloves during a practice session. Notably, he is the cousin of Kamran, Umar, and Adnan Akmal, all of whom have kept wickets for Pakistan at some stage in their careers. The Pakistan team's official Twitter handle posted a video of him practising wicketkeeping last year. "We have a new wicketkeeper in town!" read the tweet.

Here is the video of Babar keeping

We have a new wicketkeeper in town!#PAKvWI pic.twitter.com/9Qd6vp2aPf

— Pakistan Cricket (@TheRealPCB) December 12, 2021

Despite the error in the field, Babar had a good game. He scored 77 runs in 93 runs while batting first in the match. He stitched a 120-run partnership with Imam-ul-Haq, with Imam scoring 72 runs in 72 balls. However, no other batter could contribute much as West Indies bowlers effectively restricted them to 275 runs.

The West Indies were unable to sustain any significant partnerships during the chase. Except for a 67-run second-wicket partnership between Kyle Mayers and Shamarh Brooks, they couldn't do anything. Pakistan eventually won by 120 runs after constantly taking wickets. They took a 2-0 lead in the three-match ODI series.