Sports

Babar Azam completes 1,000 T20I runs for second successive year

Babar Azam added another feather to his cap on Saturday when he became first ever Pakistani to score back-to-back 1,000 runs in a colander year.

By Faizan Lakhani

November 07, 2020

Pakistan´s captain Babar Azam (C) plays a shot as Zimbabwe´s Sean Williams (bottom) watches during the first Twenty20 cricket match between Pakistan and Zimbabwe at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium in Rawalpindi on November 7, 2020. — AFP

KARACHI: Pakistan’s white-ball captain Babar Azam achieved another feat on Saturday after he became the first-ever Pakistani to score back-to-back 1,000 runs in a calendar year.

The 26-year-old scored a match-winning 82 against Zimbabwe in Rawalpindi to complete 1,000 T20 runs in the calendar year 2020.

Azam had also scored 1,607 runs last year to end the year 2019 as the top T20 runs scorer, which makes him the first Pakistani to achieve back-to-back feats of a thousand T20 runs in two consecutive years.

Former Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik had, although, scored 1,000 T20 runs on three occasions, but couldn’t achieve the feat consecutively.

Malik reached four-figure in T20s in the year 2014 (1,030), 2016 (1,082), and 2019 (1,010).

Pakistan’s Ahmed Shahzad (1,138 in 2012), Umar Akmal (1,386 in 2016), and Imran Nazir (1,036 in 2012) have achieved this feat once.

Babar is currently the leading T20 runs scorer in the year 2020 with 1,063 runs in 26 innings. He is followed by India’s KL Rahul who has scored 993 runs in 21 innings.