RAWALPINDI, Pakistan: Pakistan’s star batter Babar Azam achieved another significant career milestone on Sunday, becoming the fifth Pakistani cricketer to complete 16,000 runs in international cricket during the opening ODI Tri-Series match against Sri Lanka at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium.
The right-handed batter entered the match needing just seven runs to reach the landmark and completed the achievement early in Pakistan’s innings after Sri Lanka elected to bowl first.
Babar joined an exclusive group of Pakistani batting greats comprising Inzamam-ul-Haq, Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf and Javed Miandad.
Babar Joins Pakistan’s Batting Legends
Former captain Inzamam-ul-Haq leads Pakistan’s all-format international run-scoring list with 20,541 runs, followed by Younis Khan with 17,790.
Mohammad Yousuf occupies third place with 17,134 runs, while Javed Miandad accumulated 16,213 during his international career.
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Babar, who made his international debut in 2015, has scored more than 6,500 runs in One-Day Internationals, alongside 4,771 Test runs and 4,596 T20I runs.
He has also registered 32 international centuries and 111 half-centuries across the three formats.
Another ODI Record Within Reach
The 32-year-old is also approaching another notable achievement in ODI cricket.
Babar currently shares Pakistan’s record for most ODI centuries with legendary opener Saeed Anwar, with both having scored 20 hundreds.
One more century would take Babar past Anwar and establish a new national record in the 50-over format.
His latest achievement came as Pakistan began their home ODI Tri-Series campaign against Sri Lanka, with England also participating in the tournament.
The seven-match competition will conclude with the final at Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium on October 31.
