Pakistan captain Babar Azam went past India’s modern-day great Virat Kohli to become the fastest Asian batter to 10,000 international runs, achieving the milestone during his 119 in the first innings of the ongoing first Test against Sri Lanka.
Azam has had a consistent run across formats in recent years, thereby establishing himself as one of the most complete batsmen in modern times. The right-hander produced one of his best knocks in Test cricket in the ongoing first Test against Sri Lanka in Galle, scoring 119 in a team total of 218 in an innings in which no other batter crossed 19.
Babar’s 244-ball stay featured 11 fours and two sixes and helped the side recover from a precarious 85/7, which would later become 148/9 before a 70-run stand with No.11 Naseem Shah followed with the pair consuming 30.5 overs to add to the hosts’ frustration.
Babar also became the fastest Asian batter to complete 10,000 runs in international cricket, achieving the milestone in his 228th innings. He surpassed Kohli on that front, who had taken four innings more, while Sunil Gavaskar (243), Javed Miandad (248) and Sourav Ganguly (253) round off the top-five.
On the global front, former West Indies great Sir Vivian Richards leads the way, with just 206 innings taken to reach the mark. He is followed by Hashim Amla (217), Brian Lara (220), Joe Root (222) and Babar.
To date, Babar has aggregated 2,851 runs at 45.98 with six hundreds in Tests, 4,442 runs at 59.23 with 17 hundreds in ODIs and 2,686 runs at 45.53 with 26 fifties and a hundred in the T20I version.
He is the only player to feature in the top-four of the ICC Rankings for Batsmen currently, taking the pole position in ODIs and T20Is, and the fourth – behind Root, Marnus Labuschange and Steve Smith – in Tests.
