Imam-ul-Haq achieves major landmark during first Test against England

LEEDS: Pakistan's experienced left-handed opener Imam-ul-Haq on Wednesday added another feather to his cap as he completed 5000 international runs during the opening day of their first Test against England, underway here at Headingley.

The 30-year-old entered the fixture with 4,996 international runs across formats, out of which 1823 had come in Tests, 3152 in ODIs, and 21 came in the shortest format.

Imam eventually brought up his 5000th run in international cricket in the ninth over of Pakistan's first innings when he hit Ollie Robinson for a boundary.

As a result, the left-handed opener became the 30th Pakistani batter to breach the 5000-run barrier in international cricket, joining the likes of Inzamam-ul-Haq, Younis Khan, Javed Miandad and Imran Khan.

Notably, Imam-ul-Haq went on to score an anchoring 42 until falling victim to Josh Tongue in the ongoing second session of the opening day against England and thus now has 5038 runs to his name in his 107th appearance, coming at a decent average of 41.29 with the help of 12 centuries and 31 fifties.

His dismissal, which marked the end of a crucial 91-run partnership for the third wicket with Abdullah Shafique, sparked a brief collapse as Pakistan lost two more wickets in quick succession and had consequently been reduced to 118/5 when this story was filed.

Meanwhile, when this story was filed, Pakistan had reached 127/5 in 40 overs, with wicketkeeper batter Mohammad Rizwan and stand-in captain Salman Ali Agha battling in the middle, having made an unbeaten three and six, respectively.