Shoaib Malik reveals he wants to break Chris Gayle's record
The 41-year-old has scored 12,688 in T20 cricket
Pakistani all-rounder Shoaib Malik expressed his wish to break the record of the West Indies' great Chris Gayle for the most runs in T20 cricket.
Malik was asked a question in a local sports show if he will play the National T20 Cup this year to which he replied: "Yes".
However, when asked about the reason behind his willingness to play in the tournament, the 41-year-old revealed that he wishes to break Chris Gayle's record.
"First, I like to play [cricket] a lot. Second, as I have said [before], it is my wish to break Chris Gayle's record of most runs in T20 cricket. I need at least about 1800 runs to become the player with the most runs in the shorter format, so I will continue playing for a couple of years," he said.
Malik, 41, needs 1874 runs to create history as he currently has 12,688 runs in 478 innings in T20 cricket while Gayle has 14,562 in 455 innings.
Considering how hard he has worked on his fitness throughout the years, it wouldn't come as a surprise if he kept playing the shortest format of the game for a couple more years and broke Gayle's record.
It must be noted that Malik is one of the longest-serving cricketers in Pakistan cricket. Making his international debut against West Indies at Sharjah in October 1999, he is still going strong at the top level even after almost 24 years since his debut.
The all-rounder made his ODI debut in 1999, then went on to represent Pakistan in 287 one-day matches, where he scored 7534 runs at 34.55 while also taking 158 wickets.
Malik’s Test career was short as the all-rounder only played 35 matches in total, scoring 1898 runs at 35.14 with a career-best score of 245 against England in 2015 in UAE. He took 32 wickets in the process.
In T20I, the 41-year-old scored 2435 runs at 31.21 with a strike rate of 125.64, he also took 28 wickets in 49 innings.
Although despite being the third all-time top scorer in the Pakistan Super League (PLS) history with 2082 runs, Malik has never won a PSL trophy.
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