Pakistan’s Babar Azam surpasses Javed Miandad to achieve huge ODI milestone

Pakistan skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed won the toss and opted to bat in the second day-night match against Sri Lanka in Karachi on Monday.

Babar Azam on Monday became the first Pakistan player this year to surpass 1,000 ODI runs in a calender 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 calender year.

Pakistan’s Babar Azam celebrates after scoring a half century. (PCB/Twitter)

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.

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 smashed 105-ball 115 with eight boundaries and four sixes after Pakistan won the toss and decided to bat at National stadium. Opener Fakhar Zaman scored 54 while Haris Sohail made 40. Pakistan made 305-7 in their 50 overs against Sri Lanka.

The city has not hosted a one-day international since 2009 when Sri Lanka played two back-to-back matches at the National Stadium. Teams have been reluctant to visit the cricket-mad country since a deadly militant attack on the Sri Lankan team bus in Lahore that year.

The first match was rained off without play, while the third and final match will be staged in Karachi on Wednesday. The two teams will also play three Twenty20 internationals in Lahore next month.

(With agency inputs)