Babar Azam Creates History, Becomes First Player In The World To...

With his form and approach facing scrutiny in T20 cricket, Babar Azam walked out to bat in the second T20I of the three-match series against South Africa at the SuperSport Park in Centurion with an aggressive mindset and smashed 31 runs in just 20 balls.

Post Pakistan's defeat in the series opener, Babar was demoted to number three as Saim Ayub walked out to open with skipper Mohammad Rizwan.Rizwan had another forgettable outing with the bat with just 10 runs in 11 balls but Babar's arrival at the crease injected momemtum to the innings.

Babar and Ayub put up a 87-run partnership in just 46 balls. Ayub was the star of the show as made a 33-ball half-century to put Pakistan on course for a big score.

Through the course of the innings, Babar etched his name in the history books by completing 11,000 runs in T20 cricket (international + franchise cricket + domestic cricket). He is the 11th player to achieve the feat and only the second from Pakistan after Shoaib Malik.

Babar broke Chris Gayle's long-standing world record to become the quickest player in history (by innings) to achieve the feat. Having achieved the feat in 298 innings, Babar is the first player to reach 11,000 T20 runs in less than 300 innings.

Fastest To 11,000 T20 Runs (By Innings)

Player	Innings (to 11000 T20 Runs)
Babar Azam	318
Chris Gayle	314
David Warner	330
Virat Kohli	337
Aaron Finch	363

However, among players to score more than 11,000 runs, Babar has the second slowest strike rate after Shoaib Malik (127.47). Babar and Shoaib are the only two players with a scoring rate lower than 130.

Overall, Babar has 11,020 runs in 298 T20 innings at an average of 43.38 and a strike rate of 129.35 with 11 centuries.

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