Pakistan captain Babar Azam reached the 7k mark in his 187th innings in the T20 format, after crossing the 25-run mark during Central Punjab’s chase of 120. Chris Gayle had amassed 7,000 runs in T20 cricket in his 192nd innings while the Indian captain Virat Kohli reached the mark in his 212th innings.
Azam has become the best batsman of Pakistan as his supremacy across all formats is known by all, but it is his spectacular rise in T20 cricket that thrust him into the limelight at the beginning of his career.
He has become the 30th batsman to get past the 7000-run mark in T20s and also the third Pakistani after Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Hafeez.
Azam is currently in the 10th position in the list of highest run-getters in men’s T20 internationals, having scored 2204 runs in 56 innings at an average of 46.89.
In the ongoing National T20 Cup, the Pakistan captain has scored 259 runs in six matches, which is the most by any player in the tournament, with one century and one fifty.
Here is how Twitter users reacted to his record surpassing the Universe Boss Chris Gayle and Indian captain Virat Kohli.
Writer Farwa Munir referred to Azam as a ‘king’ and said that he ‘made’ his way to that status instead of being born into it.
Other cricket fans joined in on labelling Azam the ‘king’ of the cricketing world.
Another writer, Fazal Abbas said that Prime Minister Imran Khan himself had said Azam would attain the title of the best batsman in the world. Abbas said that Azam’s success was testament of the fact that Khan’s words could never go wrong.
A user said that Azam was a ‘legend’ in all cricketing formats and should not be compared to anyone else, including Kohli.
A cricket fan lauded Azam for being a ‘record maker’ as he reached 7000 T20 runs.
Another user said Azam was a ‘history maker’ because he was the youngest player to have achieved the momentous success.
