Pak vs WI: Babar Azam rewrites cricket record books

MULTAN: Pakistani skipper Babar Azam rewrote several batting records in the first ODI against West Indies when he led Pakistan to victory at the Multan Cricket Stadium on Wednesday.

He surpassed former Indian skipper Virat Kohli to become the fastest to score 1,000 runs in the 50-over format as a captain. Babar reached 1,000 runs after he scored a dominant century.

The number one ODI batter in the world took just 13 innings to achieve the feat.

Previously, Kohli scored 1,000 runs as captain in his 17th innings followed by South African batter AB De Villiers (20) and New Zealand's Kane Williamson (22).

Also, Babar has now become the only batter to score three consecutive ODI centuries twice.

Earlier, he achieved this feat during a match against West Indies in 2016 whereas this time, he made this record against West Indies followed by two 100s in the second and third home ODI back in April this year.

Highest score in 85 innings

The Pakistani skipper surpassed South Africa’s Amla record of scoring the highest runs in the first 85 innings. Amla had scored 4312 runs while Babar Azam broke this record when he scored the 52nd run of his innings.

Fastest to 17 centuries

The world’s no 1 batter added another feather in his cap when he scored the 17th century of his career in the opening match against the West indies. He became the fastest player to reach the milestone of 17 tons in 85 innings beating several names in the cricketing world.

Hashim Amla took 98 innings to score 17 centuries, Virat Kohli 112 and David Warner 113. The South African batter had 14 centuries under his belt in 85 innings while Virat Kohli and Quinton de Kock scored 12 tons each after playing the same number of innings.

534 runs in 5 ODIs

Babar Azam also became the top Pakistani batter to score the highest number of runs in a five-match bracket, breaking Fakhar Zaman’s record of 515. Virat Kohli is on the top of this list with 596 runs.