Babar Azam smashes Chris Gayle’s T20 record, completes 14K runs for Pakistan-OxBig News Network

Babar Azam, on Friday, December 13, became the fastest to 11000 runs in T20s. He broke the record of Chris Gayle in Pakistan’s second T20I against South Africa at the SuperSport Park in Centurion. Babar reached the landmark in his 298th innings, while Gayle got there in 314 innings. David Warner (330) and Virat Kohli (337) are third and fourth in the list.

South Africa vs Pakistan, 2nd T20 Updates

The 30-year-old Babar scored 31 runs off 20 balls with three fours and a six before George Linde accounted for his wicket. The right-handed batter fell for a duck in the first T20I at Kingsmead in Durban after teenager Kwena Mapakha accounted for his wicket. But he somewhat made amends in Centurion where he also scored a T20I hundred back in 2021.

Fastest to 11000 runs in T20s

Babar Azam – 298 innings

Chris Gayle – 314 innings

David Warner – 330 innings

Virat Kohli – 337 innings

Babar Azam showing his calibre

Babar started his knock with a streaky boundary through third man before playing a gorgeous cover drive to collect his second boundary. Thereafter, he hit a massive six over square leg to show his class. Babar was also on course to become the all-time leading run-scorer in T20Is before Linde dismissed him.

Rohit Sharma, who retired from T20Is after India’s winning run in the T20 World Cup earlier this year, currently holds the record. In 128 matches thus far in T20Is, Babar has racked up 4221 runs at an average of 40.20 and a strike-rate of 129.31 with three hundreds and 36 fifties to his name.

He also became only the fifth Pakistani batter to get to the landmark of 14000 runs in international cricket. The others are Inzamam-ul-Haq, Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf and Javed Miandad. He is around 6000 runs short of going past Inzamam’s tally of 20541 runs for Pakistan at the international level.