Pakistan captain Babar Azam on Sunday became the fastest cricket player to reach the milestone of 2,000 runs in the Twenty20 international format, having accomplished the feat in just 52 innings.
Azam bagged the record during Pakistan’s deciding third and final T20 against Zimbabwe at the Harare Sports Club.
“The brilliant Babar Azam bags another record,” congratulated the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Twitter.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) also congratulated Azam on the achievement.
“Babar Azam becomes the fastest batsman to 2000 T20I runs. He has taken only 52 innings to achieve the feat!”
“Congratulations to skipper Babar Azam for being the fastest batsman in the world to reach 2,000 T20I runs in only 52 innings,” said the Foreign Office as it too extended its congratulations.
He became the 11th overall player to score 2,000 T20I runs and also took another record from Indian skipper Virat Kohli, who previously held the record for scoring the 2,000 runs in 56 innings.
Babar only needed 60 more runs to break the record since he had already achieved 1940 runs at an average of 48.50 in 49 innings, according to a previous press release from the PCB.
“The right-handed Lahore-born batsman is in sublime form these days, as he struck his maiden T20I hundred in Pakistan’s nine-wicket win over South Africa in the third T20I at SuperSport Park on April 14. He was also awarded with player-of-the-series award for his 210 runs at 52.50 in the four-match series,” it had said.
Babar had previously this month also overtaken Kohli to become the No.1 ranked ODI batsman in the world after the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Super League matches against South Africa.
Babar had moved ahead of Kohli to the No.1 position after his 103 in the first match of the series. But, he had slipped to second (five points behind Kohli) after scoring 31 in the second match.
However, after an innings of 94 in the series finale that earned him the player of the match award, Babar had once again leapfrogged the India captain who slipped from the top for the first time since replacing AB de Villiers in October 2017, a press release issued by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had said.
Babar had started the three-match ODI series 20 points behind Kohli and finished eight points ahead of the Indian batsman, earning 28 points in the series in which he aggregated 228 runs.
Reacting to the news, Babar had said: “I feel privileged and honoured to have joined the company of stalwarts like Abbas, Miandad and Yousuf, who will always be shining stars in Pakistani cricket.
“This is another milestone in my career, which will now require even more hard work and absolute consistency with the bat in order for me to hold on to the ranking for an extended period of time, like Sir Vivian Richards from January 1984 to October 1988 and Kohli for 1,258 days.”
