Babar Azam reaches two milestones during second T20I against South Africa

Former Pakistan captain broke a long-standing world record by Chris Gayle

Pakistan’s Babar Azam made history during the second T20I against South Africa at SuperSport Park in Centurion on Friday, breaking a long-standing record held by Chris Gayle.

Former captain, who was demoted to number three in the batting order, scored 31 runs off 20 balls. His performance on the day led him to surpass Gayle’s record to become the fastest player to reach 11,000 T20 runs (combined international, franchise, and domestic cricket).

Babar’s innings brought him to the milestone in just 298 innings, breaking Gayle’s previous record of 314 innings. With this feat, Babar became the 11th player in history to score 11,000 runs in the shortest format of the game, and only the second Pakistani after Shoaib Malik.

Babar also held the record for the quickest to 7,000, 9,000, and 10,000 runs in T20 cricket as well. Overall, Babar has 11,020 runs in 298 T20 innings at an average of 43.38 and a strike rate of 129.35 with 11 centuries.

Fastest Players to 11,000 T20 Runs (by innings):

1. Babar Azam - 298 innings
2. Chris Gayle - 314 innings
3. David Warner - 330 innings
4. Virat Kohli - 337 innings
5. Aaron Finch - 363 innings

In addition to this T20 record, Babar also reached another significant milestone in his career as he became the fifth Pakistani batter to surpass 14,000 runs in international cricket.

The other players in this exclusive club are Inzamam-ul-Haq, Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, and Javed Miandad.

Babar is now just 6,000 runs shy of Inzamam-ul-Haq’s record of 20,541 international runs for Pakistan.

Most International Runs for Pakistan:

1. Inzamam-ul-Haq - 20,580 runs in 551 innings
2. Younis Khan - 17,790 runs in 491 innings
3. Mohammad Yousuf - 17,300 runs in 432 innings
4. Javed Miandad - 16,213 runs in 407 innings
5. Babar Azam - 14,029 runs in 338 innings