New Zealand vs Pakistan: Babar Azam becomes second fastest to 500 runs in T20Is

The dismal run for team Pakistan on their current tour to New Zealand does not seem to be coming to an end. After a whitewash in the ODI series, the Men in Green were trounced in the first T20I by 7 wickets. Things would have been a lot worse for them had Babar Azam not held the fort at one end during the game.

Pakistan, who have already had batting collapses on the tour, were reeling at 38/6 at one stage during the game. It was Babar Azam, who managed to stick around with his run-a-ball 41 to ensure that Pakistan scaled the 100-run mark. En route his gutsy 41-run knock, which went in vain, Azam managed to notch up a personal milestone.

During the course of his knock, he became the second fastest cricketer to complete 500 runs in T20Is. This was Azam’s 15th innings in the shortest format of the game at the highest level. When seen on the comparative scale, only two batsmen have more than 500 runs to their credit after 15 T20I innings. Babar Azam has 509 runs to his name after his 15th inning.

Meanwhile, Australia’s Aaron Finch had 567 runs after his 15 T20I innings. West Indies batting great, and arguably the best T20 player going by the records, Chris Gayle had 496 runs after 15 T20I innings. Australia’s David Warner had 494 runs and Indian skipper Virat Kohli had 484 runs. Interestingly, hard-hitting West Indies opener Evin Lewis can also join Azam in the list soon. He has 468 runs in 14 innings thus far and will be needing only 32 more runs to scale the 500-run mark.

Rahul with an opportunity

It is worth noting that India’s KL Rahul has the chance to escalate above everybody else in the list. The Indian opener has 458 runs to his name in just 11 innings thus far at the highest level in the shortest format of the game.

Here is the list players who scored most runs after 15 T20I innings:

These cricket stats are as on 22nd Jan 2018, and for more such info and other cricket news today, keep following CricTracker.com