Published in The Nation Apr 26th, 2021,
LAHORE – Pakistan captain Babar Azam became the fastest batsman to reach 2,000 runs in T20I format, during the third and final T20I against Zimbabwe at the Harare Sports Club on Sunday.
Babar played 52 innings to achieve this feat of scoring 2000 T20I runs and also broke India’s batsman Virat Kohli’s record, who took 56 innings to reach the landmark. Australian skipper Aaron Finch (62 innings) and former New Zealand captain Brendon Mccullum (66 innings) are at third and fourth spots, respectively. While Kohli is still leading the charts of most runs in T20I cricket, Babar is at 11th spot having scored 2,035 runs in the shortest format of the game. The Indian skipper has scored 3,159 T20I runs at an average of 52.65.
Earlier this week, Kohli remained firm at the fifth spot but Babar moved up one place to reach the second slot in the ICC T20I player rankings released on Wednesday. Babar’s superlative form had helped him replace Kohli at the top of the men’s ODI players rankings last week and this week’s T20I update saw him make a strong 47-point surge to overtake Finch in the T20I.