Babar Azam: On Friday, England beat Pakistan in the 6th game of the seven-match T20I series at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore. With this win, England has leveled the series at 3-3 and now both teams will meet in the final and series-deciding match at the same venue on Sunday. However, for Pakistan, one positive was the way skipper Babar Azam played, and he has joined Virat Kohli in an elite list of T20I batters.
It started when England skipper Moeen Ali won the toss and chose to bowl first. Pakistan rested star batter Mohammad Rizwan and pacer Haris Rauf. Mohammad Haris and Shahnawaz Dahani replaced these two in the team. However, Pakistan had a poor start, losing two wickets within the first four overs.
After that, Babar, along with Haider Ali (18) and Iftikhar Ahmed (31) added some good partnerships. But none of the other batters could play a long inning. Babar brought up his 27th T20I fifty and played till the end. He took his team to a challenging total of 169/6 in 20 overs.
PAK vs ENG: Babar Azam equals Virat Kohli in a Elite list of T20I batters
Babar Azam scored 89* off 59 balls, hitting seven fours and three maximums. With this innings, he also equaled the former Indian skipper Virat Kohli and became the joint-fastest T20I batter to score 3000 runs.
Both Virat and Babar took 81 innings to do so. However, he also went past Ireland’s explosive opener Paul Striling’s tally of 3011 T20I runs and became the fourth highest run-getter in the shortest format. Babar has scored 3035 runs in 81 innings at 43.98 and a strike rate of 130.09. He has also hit two centuries and 27 fifties in this format.
Babar is only behind Rohit Sharma (3694 runs), Virat Kohli (3663) and New Zealand’s opener Martin Guptill (3497) in the shortest format. But unfortunately, his innings couldn’t help his team win the match, as England thrashed Pakistan by 8 wickets and 33 balls to spare. The visitors chased down the target of 170 runs within 14.3 overs.
Philip Salt played a blinder with an innings of 88* off 41 balls, including three sixes and 13 boundaries. Alex Hales (24), Dawid Malan (26) and Ben Duckett (26*) also made good contributions. Both teams will meet on Sunday again for the series decider.
Who has scored the fastest 3000 runs in T20 internationals?
Babar also equaled the former Indian skipper Virat and became the joint-fastest T20I batter to score 3000 runs. Both Virat and Babar took 81 innings to do so.