ISLAMABAD: Babar Azam on Monday became the first Pakistan player this year to surpass 1,000 ODI runs in a calendar year. The right-handed batsman went on to smash his 11th ODI hundred in the 2nd ODI against Sri Lanka in Karachi.
While doing so, Azam smashed the record held by former captain Javed Miandad and became the fastest Pakistan batsman to cross 1,000 runs in a calendar year.
While it had taken 21 innings for Miandad to do so in 1987, Azam achieved the same in just 19 innings. Former middle-order batsman Mohammed Yousuf and former batsman and current coach Misbah-ul-Haq share the third spot in the list, having taken 23 innings to reach the feat, Cricket country reported.
Apart from Azam, other cricketers who have crossed 1,000 runs in 2019 are Virat Kohli (1,288), Rohit Sharma (1,232), Aaron Finch (1,141) and Usman Khawaja (1,085).
Babar Azam also moved past Virat Kohli to become the third fastest to 11 ODI hundreds. Babar reached his 11th hundred in one-day internationals in just his 71st innings while Virat Kohli needed 82 innings to get to 11 ODI centuries.
Babar Azam, who had scored 96 in Pakistan's last ODI against Bangladesh during the 2019 World Cup, steered the innings for the hosts during the second ODI against Sri Lanka in Karachi on Monday.
South Africa's Hashim Amla remains the quickest to 11 ODI hundreds, getting there in only 64 innings. Another South African Quinton de Kock had brought up his 11th hundred in only his 65th innings.