After making his debut against Zimbabwe in 2015 in Lahore, Babar Azam has changed the fortunes of Pakistan cricket as the team which was recognised due to their batting failures have now turned into a match-winning outfit.
Calling Azam the key to Pakistan's success in the recent past would not be wrong on any level as he not only led this side to number one rank in ODIs but also performed consistently with the bat — with many records broken and some still to break.
And now, he is closing in on another record, but this time it's the "chase master" Virat Kohli whose record is on the 28-year-old’s radar.
Azam is just six runs away from breaking Kohli's record as the fastest captain to 2000 ODI runs.
Kohli scored 2000 ODI runs as a skipper in 36 innings and Babar, after his 150 against Nepal in the opening match of the Asia Cup 2023 on Wednesday, has 1994 runs in just 30 innings.
Earlier, Azam broke former South Africa batter Hashim Amla's record as he became the fastest player to 19 ODI centuries.
Azam reached this feat in just 102 innings while Amla did it in his 104th.
As he broke Amla's record, he also became the fastest player to achieve this feat in ODI cricket.
Innings taken to score 19 centuries:
Babar Azam: 102
Hashim Amla: 104
Virat Kohli: 124
David Warner: 139
AB de Villiers: 171
It must be noted that Babar (5353 runs) also broke Amla's (5165) record of scoring most runs in 102 innings.
Earlier today, Pakistan posted a massive total of 342-6 in 50 overs after winning the toss and deciding to bat first against Nepal on Wednesday in Multan.
Lineups
Nepal: Kushal Bhurtel, Aasif Sheikh (wk), Rohit Paudel (c), Aarif Sheikh, Kushal Malla, Dipendra Singh Airee, Gulsan Jha, Sompal Kami, Karan KC, Sandeep Lamichhane, Lalit Rajbanshi
Pakistan: Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Agha Salman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf
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