CENTURION: Pakistan batsman Babar Azam achieved several milestones during the second T20I of the three-match series against South Africa here at SuperSport Park on Friday.
Babar, who scored 31 off just 20 deliveries, completed 14,000 international runs across formats and became only the fifth Pakistani batsman to reach the milestone.
As a result, the right-handed batsman joined an elusive list of country greats like Javed Miandad, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan.
Most international races for Pakistan:
Inzamam-ul-Haq – 202,580 runs in 551 innings
Younis Khan – 17,790 runs in 491 innings
Mohammad Yousuf – 17,300 runs in 432 innings
Javed Miandad – 16,213 runs in 407 innings
Babar Azam – 14,029 runs in 338 innings
Furthermore, the right-handed batsman also became the fastest batsman to accumulate 11,000 runs in T20s, surpassing legendary batsman Chris Gayle. He is also the fastest with 7,000, 9,000 and 10,000 runs in the shortest format.
Babar reached the milestone in just 298 innings, 16 less than Gayle, who played 314 innings.
The right-handed batsman is only the second Pakistani batsman after Shoaib Malik to reach the milestone and the 11th overall.
The feat put him on par with legendary batsmen like Gayle, Kieron Pollard, Alex Hales, Virat Kohli, David Warner, Jos Buttler, Rohit Sharma, Aaron Finch, James Vince and compatriot Malik.
Furthermore, his knock of 31 runs in the aforementioned game also propelled him to complete 26,000 runs in professional cricket.
Faizan Lakhani is deputy editor (sports) at Geo News.
