Pakistan skipper Babar Azam owns quite a few records in international cricket. He is currently the number one ranked batter in ODI cricket and has already scored three half-centuries in the ongoing World Cup in India. He is also brilliant in the shortest format of the game having scored 3485 runs in 98 T20I innings at an average of 41.5 with three centuries and 30 half-centuries to his name.
He also owns some records in T20 cricket but on Monday (October 30), Malaysia’s Virandeep Singh broke a couple of Babar Azam’s records in the format. He is currently featuring in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Asia Finals 2023 which will work as a pathway for the teams to qualify for the T20 World Cup next year scheduled in the West Indies and the USA.
Malaysia faced Oman in their opening game of the tournament on Monday and although they lost the match, Virandeep created a record with his 57-run knock off 53 balls with two fours and as many sixes to his name. During his fighting knock with the bat, Virandeep completed 2000 runs in T20I cricket in 64 innings becoming the sixth fastest to the milestone in terms of innings taken. Babar Azam is the fastest to 2000 runs in T20Is alongside his teammate Mohammad Rizwan having reached there in 52 innings each.
However, in terms of time taken to complete 2000 runs in T20Is, Virandeep Singh went past the Pakistan captain. Babar had reached the milestone in four years and 230 days after making his debut in the format, Virandeep did so in four years and 218 days. Moreover, the latter is also the youngest to the milestone having breached the 2000-run mark at the age of 24 while Babar had done the same when he was 26 years old.