Babar Azam Goes Past Virat Kohli To Achieve A Major Milestone In International Cricket
Virat Kohli, Babar Azam (source: Twitter)
Pakistan captain Babar Azam and former Indian captain Virat Kohli have always been in comparison for being the best cricketer in current times. While the two share immense respect for each other, fans are always ready to hype their favourite players when they outperform each other.
On Thursday (October 13), Pakistan cricket captain Azam set a new record by becoming the fastest Asian batter to reach 11,000 runs in international cricket. The 27-year-old right-handed batter reached the milestone in his 251st innings, breaking former Indian captain Virat Kohli’s previous record.
It took the Indian batting legend 261 innings to reach the milestone. Sunil Gavaskar, a former batting great, took 262 innings to achieve the same feat and was followed by Javed Miandad, who got to the mark in 266 innings.
Babar scored 55 runs off 40 balls against Bangladesh in the sixth match of the ongoing Tri-series at Christchurch’s Hagley Oval. He contributed to his team’s total of 174 runs in 19.5 overs for the loss of three wickets. Babar now has 11002 runs in international cricket, making him the 11th Pakistani batter to reach the milestone. He has scored 3122 runs in 75 innings of 42 Tests, 4664 runs in 90 innings of 92 One-Day Internationals, and 3216 runs in 86 innings of 91 Twenty20 Internationals.
Babar batted well against Bangladesh, adding 101 runs for the first wicket with Mohammad Rizwan, who continued his outstanding form. It was the eighth time the duo had scored more than 100 runs in a T20I. With his 29th fifty in 91 T20Is, Babar surpassed Indian captain Rohit Sharma to become the batter with the second most fifties in the game’s shortest format.
The Indian captain, who is also the leading run-scorer in T20I history, has 28 fifties and four centuries to his name, and now Babar has 29. In the elite list, he is only second to Virat. The 33-year-old has 33 half-centuries in T20 internationals.
In the meantime, Pakistan is preparing for the 20-20 World Cup in Australia. They will kick off their campaign against arch-rivals India on October 23rd at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
