Pakistan's Babar Azam surpasses Virat Kohli, becomes fastest Asian batter to reach 10,000 international runs
Jul 17, 2022
Galle [Sri Lanka], July 17 : Pakistani batter and captain Babar Azam on Sunday surpassed Indian counterpart Virat Kohli to become the fastest Asian batter in terms of innings to surpass a total of 10,000 runs across all international cricket formats.
Azam attained the record in the first Tes against Sri Lanka at the Galle International Stadium.
In Pakistan's first innings on Day 2, Azam reached the landmark, taking 228 innings to do and surpassing Virat Kohli's record of 232 innings.
Besides this, he is also the fastest Pakistani batter to reach 10,000 runs in international cricket, overtaking the record of legendary Javed Miandad, who took 248 innings to reach the landmark. Some other notable Pakistani batters with 10,000 international runs are Saeed Anwar (255), Mohammed Yusuf (261) and Inzamam Ul Haq (281). A total of 11 batters from Pakistan have reached this landmark.
He is the fifth fastest overall to reach 10,000 international runs. At the top is West Indies legend Vivian Richards, who reached the landmark in just 206 innings. He is followed by Hashim Amla (217), Brian Lara (220), Joe Root (222) and Azam (228).
Coming to the match, Sri Lanka's second innings is in progress and have the lead currently.
Earlier, Pakistan was bundled out for just 218. Skipper Azam fought a lone battle for his side, scoring 119 runs. Other players in the side could not cross the 20-run mark and were dominated by Lankan bowlers. They were trailing in the game by four runs after such a poor show with the bat.
Prabath Jayasuriya continued his amazing run with the ball, taking 5/82. Spinners Maheesh Theekshana and Ramesh Mendis also got two wickets. Kasun Rajitha got one wicket.
Earlier, opting to bat first, Sri Lanka put a total of 222 runs on the board. While Oshada Fernando (35) and Maheesh Theekshana (38) delivered solid contributions, it was the gritty knock by Dinesh Chandimal (76) which dragged Lankans to a respectable score.
Pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi was the standout bowler for Pakistan, taking 4/58. Hasan Ali and Yasir Shah took two wickets each while Naseem Shah and Mohammed Nawaz could get only one.
