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Pakistan captain Babar Azam breached the 3,000-run mark in T20Is on Friday becoming the fifth international batter to get to the milestone. He also equalled Virat Kohli's record of being the quickest to achieve this feat.
With his half-century against England in the sixth T20I of the seven-match series, the Pakistani captain became the first player to score 3,000 T20I runs for Pakistan. Azam was expected to lead the Pakistan innings in the absence of wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Rizwan who was not playing in this game. As Pakistan lost a few early wickets in the Powerplay, the captain responded by taking on the role of the anchor. Within the first six overs, Azam advanced to 25 from 19 balls and went on to record his 29th fifty-plus score in the format. After reaching his half-century in 41 balls and finishing unbeaten on 87 off 59 balls, he picked up the pace in the final overs. Azam's late aggressiveness enabled Pakistan to reach 169/6 in their 20 overs on Friday in Lahore. Azam joins an exclusive group of T20I batsmen who have scored 3,000 runs. With more than 3,000 runs combined, the Indian combo of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli lead the men's T20I run total. The other members of the group are Paul Stirling and Martin Guptill. However, Azam equalled Virat Kohli's record for the format with 3,000 runs in 81 innings. The only two batters to accomplish the feat in fewer than 100 innings are Kohli and Azam. Mohammad Hafeez, who has scored 2,514 runs, is the next Pakistani batter on the list, followed by Bismah Maroof, who has scored 2,388 runs. Rizwan and Shoaib Malik are the only others outside these three from Pakistan with more than 2,000 T20I runs. (ANI)
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