RAWALPINDI (Kashmir English): Pakistan star batter Babar Azam on Friday scored an international century after 83 innings during the second One Day International (ODI) against Sri Lanka at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, ending an over 800-day drought.
With this hundred, Azam completed his 20 ODI centuries, equalling Saeed Anwar’s record of most ODI centuries by a Pakistani batter.
He also became the fastest Pakistani to score 20 ODI centuries as he achieved the milestone in 136 innings, while Anwar did it in 244 innings. Others in the list are Mohammad Yousuf with 15 hundreds, while Fakhar Zaman and Mohammad Hafeez are tied with 11 each.
In addition to that, Babar also became the third-fastest batter in ODI history to reach 20 centuries in 136 innings.
He now stands just behind Hashim Amla and Virat Kohli, who achieved it in 108 and 133 innings respectively, and ahead of David Warner, who took 142 innings.
The star batter brought up the much-anticipated century off 115 balls when he pulled Pramod Madushan for a single on 47.1 balls.
The 31-year-old scored his last international century during the ACC Men’s Asia Cup match against Nepal in 2023 [two years, two months, and 15 days ago]. He scored multiple half-centuries across formats after 2023, but was unable to mark the 100-run.
Overall, today’s ton is a former Pakistan captain’s 32nd in international cricket, and he has 104 half-centuries already in his record books across formats. He has scored nine hundreds in Tests, while three in T20Is.
