RAWALPINDI (Kashmir English): Former captain Babar Azam has reached a significant milestone in his career, reaching 16,000 runs in all international formats.
Babar hit the milestone in the first ODI against Sri Lanka in the tri-series match at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium.
The reported stats show that the 32-year-old has now reached the milestone of 16,038 runs in international cricket, making him the fifth Pakistani batsman to achieve the milestone.
He has scored 4596 runs in 145 Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is), 6671 runs in 144 One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and 4771 runs in 66 Tests.
Babar is also the only bowler to have scored 32 international 100-run innings in all the formats.
Inzamam-ul-Haq is the top scorer of Pakistan in International cricket with 20541 runs in 495 matches. Former captain Younis Khan is second with 17,790 runs in 408 international matches.
Babar’s new feat further boosts his profile in all three formats of the game as the top batsman in Pakistan.
Babar Azam Career
Born in Lahore, Babar Azam hails from the Akmal family, a clan deeply associated with cricket. He progressed through various stages of Pakistan’s junior cricket system; he was part of the Under-15 setup in 2008 and went on to become Pakistan’s highest run-scorer in both the 2010 and 2012 Under-19 World Cups.
Babar Azam proved his mettle in 2016 by scoring three consecutive centuries in an ODI series against the West Indies—a feat he achieved at the age of 21. Prior to this, he had made his international debut in a home series against Zimbabwe, scoring a half-century in his very first match.
Following his stellar performances in ODI cricket, he was included in the Test team. After the retirements of Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq, Babar Azam began to cement his position as a premier batter for Pakistan.
By 2018, Babar Azam had become the joint second-fastest batter to reach 2,000 runs in ODIs. He also holds the record for being the fastest batter to reach 1,000 runs in T20 Internationals.
In 2022, Babar Azam secured a spot among the world’s top three batters in both Test and ODI cricket. That same year, he scored 1,184 runs in Test cricket, including four centuries.
