Babar Azam adds another feather to his cap

KARACHI: Pakistan’s captain Babar Azam has become the sixth Pakistani to score over 1,000 Test runs in a calendar year.

The Pakistan skipper reached the feat on Monday during the third day of the Karachi Test against England, when he reached 45 in his innings. Babar, though, was dismissed after scoring 54.

While this was the seventh occasion of a Pakistani batter scoring 1,000 Test runs in a calendar year, Babar is the sixth cricketer from the country to do so as Younis Khan achieved this feat twice.

Former captain Younis had scored 1,179 runs in 2006 and another 1,064 runs in 2014. Mohammad Yousuf leads the chart with 1,788 runs in the year 2006. Other batters in the list from Pakistan include Azhar Ali (1,198 in 2016), Inzamam-ul-Haq (1,090 in 2000) and Mohsin Khan (1,029 in 1982).

Only three other batters have amassed 1,000 runs this year before Babar. English cricketer Joe Root has scored 1,098 runs in 27 innings, Australia's Usman Khawaja 1,079 runs in 19 innings and England's Jonny Bairstow with 1,061 runs in 19 innings.

Babar, who currently has 1,009 runs from 15 innings, has two more innings left this year as Pakistan is scheduled to play a Test match against New Zealand between December 26 to 30 in Karachi. He is still in contention to finish the year 2022 as the leading Test runs scorer.

The star player is in the third spot of the International Cricket Council's (ICC) career-best rankings with 871 points.

Babar's third place comes after Australia's Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith — who are in the first and second spots respectively.