Babar Azam surpassed former India captain Virat Kohli to become the fastest batter Asian batter to cross the 10,000 runs mark in international cricket. The Pakistan skipper achieved this huge milestone on Sunday (July 17) in a Test match against Sri Lanka at the Galle International Stadium. It took Virat Kohli 232 innings to make a record but the talismanic batter from Pakistan needed only 228 innings to break Kohli’s record.
Amongst all Pakistan batters to reach the 10,000 runs mark in international cricket, Babar is the fastest to reach the landmark in 228 innings, surpassing the previous record of 248 innings held by legendary batter Javed Miandad.
As per innings taken to reach 10,000 runs in international cricket, Babar is fifth fastest batter to reach the mark in 228 innings after Viv Richards (206 innings), Hashim Amla (217 innings), Brian Lara (220 innings) and Joe Root (222 innings).
“10,000 international runs. Congratulations skipper @babarazam258 on becoming the 11th Pakistan batter to accomplish this major milestone,” tweeted the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).
international runs
Congratulations skipper @babarazam258 on becoming the 11th batter to accomplish this major milestone #SLvPAK | #BackTheBoysInGreen pic.twitter.com/hQV28gmn9O
— Pakistan Cricket (@TheRealPCB) July 17, 2022
Babar was the lonewolf for Pakistan in the 1st Test match against as he scored 119 off 244 to guide his team to a total of 218 in the second innings of the match. Sri Lanka finished their first innings for 222 runs and it looked like Pakistan will finish under 200 until Babar Azam took the charge against the Lankan Lions.
Coming to Kohli and Babar, the two batters gave an example to the world that sportstars are opponents on the field but off the field they don’t keep anything personal. The Pakistan captain had tweeted picture with Kohli on July 15, writing: ‘This too shall pass. Stay strong’, as Kohli was dismissed cheaply again in a match against England. The tweet has garnered over 280k likes and close to 50,000 retweets.
Babar Azam is currently the number 1 batter in the ODI format and is rated as highly as Kohli today. A number of Pakistan fans and former cricketers believe that Babar can one day cross the heroics of Kohli and become the greatest batter of all-time if he continues like this only. (With IANS inputs)
