Pakistan’s white-ball skipper Babar Azam bagged another record in T20I cricket during the final game of the five-match T20I series against New Zealand at the Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore, on Saturday.
Azam, 29, has been creating records ever since his debut for the Green Shirts and bagged one more as he became the player to have scored the most fours in the shorter format.
Babar scored his 408th four during the match against New Zealand in his 108th innings, which took him above Ireland’s Paul Stirling who hit 407 fours in 136 innings.
Most fours in T20I cricket
409 — Babar Azam in 108 innings
407 — Paul Stirling in 136 innings
361 — Virat Kohli in 109 innings
359 — Rohit Sharma in 143 innings
320 — David Warner in 103 innings
Meanwhile, Babar is also closing on Virat Kohli's record for scoring the most runs in T20I cricket.
Azam currently has 3,804 runs in T20I cricket and is only behind Kohli (4,037) and Rohit Sharma (3,974) on the list of most runs in the shortest format of the game.
The prolific Pakistan batter only needs 233 runs to equal Kohli’s tally of runs in T20I cricket.
Remember, the Green Shirts are currently hosting the Kiwis in their final match of the series.
Having lost in their previous two matches, there is no room for error as despite having a full-strength squad, Babar Azam’s men trail the five-match series by 2-1 against a relatively inexperienced New Zealand team.
The hopes of clinching the series are gone, Pakistan, at best, can draw it by winning the last match and this is what the Green Shirts are playing with in mind.
Playing XIs
Pakistan: Babar Azam (c), Saim Ayub, Usman Khan (wk), Fakhar Zaman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Imad Wasim, Shaheen Afridi, Usama Mir, Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Amir
New Zealand: Michael Bracewell (c), Tom Blundell, Mark Chapman, Josh Clarkson, Zak Foulkes, Cole McConchie, James Neesham, Will O'Rourke, Ben Sears, Tim Seifert (wk), Ish Sodhi
- Babar Azam