Dubai, Nov 11: Pakistan captain Babar Azam on Thursday broke Virat Kohli’s record to become the fastest batsman to score 2500 runs in the T20Is during his team’s semifinal match against Australia in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.
India skipper Kohli took 68 innings to breach the 2500-run mark in T20 internationals while Azam achieved the feat in 62 innings.
Azam, who scored 39 in 34 balls, also registered the most number of runs in a maiden T20 world cup with 303 which makes him the first batsman to score 300 runs in the T20 World Cup 2021.
Meanwhile, Babar’s teammate Mohammad Rizwan also became the first player in the history of the game to score 1000 T20I runs in a calendar year.
En route his 67, he also broke the record England’s Jos Buttler had set for the most runs by a keeper in a Men’s T20 World Cup.
Buttler, who broke Craig Kieswetter’s record from 2010 in this year’s edition, had scored 269 runs to his name before England crashed out on Tuesday in the semifinals.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Australian batting consultant Matthew Hayden has said there is no doubt that Virat Kohli has so far achieved a lot more than the younger Babar Azam but the Pakistan skipper is second to none when it comes to “consistently reacting to the ball”.
During an interaction with Pakistani journalists from Dubai, Hayden said comparisons between Babar and Kohli were expected because of their high batting calibre and since both are captains.
Hayden, who has worked with the Pakistan team in the T20 World Cup in UAE, however, felt Babar was not as flamboyant as Kohli.
“Babar and his personality is, as you see, what you get,” Hayden said. “He is very consistent. He is very stable. He is not overly flamboyant.”
“They are opposites the way I look at it. Babar is pretty calm most of the time and goes about his captaincy and batting meticulously while Kohli is very animated, very passionate, and very boisterous on the field,” he added.
Hayden also talked about Babar’s qualities as a batter.
“I think I see Babar has a lot of control when batting and he has a solid temperament. Just to give you an insight into that talent, his ability to consistently react to the ball is second to none from what I’ve seen.” (Agencies)
