The love affair between Babar Azam and records continued on Wednesday as the Pakistan cricket team captain went on to break ex-India skipper Virat Kohli's incredible world record in One-Day Internationals (ODI). Babar Azam made his return to international action with an excellent hundred, smashing a well-compiled 103 off 107 balls to seal Pakistan's five-wicket victory over the West Indies in the first game of the three-match series in Multan.
In the process, Babar Azam became the fastest to complete 1000 runs as captain in the ODIs. The 27-year-old took just 13 innings to accomplish the milestone, while the previous record-holder Virat Kohli needed 17 knocks to reach the landmark.
However, it wasn't the only world record that Babar Azam scripted during the win over the West Indies. With his three-figure score against the Caribbean team, he also became the first cricketer ever to hit three consecutive hundreds on two different occasions.
Before his ton against the Windies, Babar Azam had scored 114 and 105* in his last two appearances for the national side against Australia.
Babar Azam's records ignited Twitter as several Pakistani supporters took to social media to hail Babar Azam's accomplishments:
โOther batters bat to score runs, he bats to break records. Just G.O.A.T things,โ a fan wrote on the micro-blogging platform using the GOAT (Greatest of all time) acronym to describe the Pakistani cricketer.
On the other hand, another said: โBabar Azam by breaking the consistency of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma has set new standards of greatness for the next generation of batters. Babar Azam is just too phenomenal and an unbelievable run-machine! There's simply no competition of Babar Azam in current world cricket!โ
Meanwhile a third wrote: โA Babar Azam century inevitable. 17 centuries in 85 innings and a 60+ average in ODIs. Truly special!!!!โ
โBabar Azam is the first player in ODI history to score three consecutive 100s on two occasions and the first Pakistan batter to have 4 centuries in a sequence of 5 innings. He's been in beast form. Last five innings: 103, 105*, 114, 57, 158,โ a fourth declared.
โBabar Azam world record fastest to 17 ODI centuries. Babar also fastest to 7, 13, 14, 15 & 16 ODI centuries. Babar fastest to 1K ODI runs as captain & 1st batsman to score 3 consecutive ODI centuries twice. Babar dealing in world records. Genius,โ a fifth added.
The ultimate praise for Babar Azam, though, came from Pakistan Cricket Board chief Ramiz Raja, who paid a rich tribute to the skipper of the national team for his exploits against the West Indies.
Ramiz Raja labelled Babar Azam the best batter across all the three formats of the sport.
Ramiz Raja also hailed southpaw Khushdil Shah who produced a stunning show of explosive batting, slamming a quickfire 41 off 23 balls to take the home team over the finishing line:
โA tremendous game. Babar walking to a hundred and showing yet again why he is the best all format batsman in the world and why Khushdil has to be renamed Dilkhush !! A big thank you to all the fans at the stadium for braving the heat and making it a great day. Multan Zindabad,โ Ramiz Raja tweeted.
https://twitter.com/iramizraja/status/1534760753118556161
Coming back to Virat Kohli, the star India batter has been experiencing a prolonged slump in form which shows no signs of ending at the moment.
The last time Virat Kohli scored a hundred was back in November 2019, and since then he has gone without a century in more than 100 matches across formats.
The Delhi-born batter even failed to find his rhythm and touch in the 2022 Indian Premier League (IPL), registering a string of low scores, including three first-ball ducks in the competition.
The horror show with the bat for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) prompted experts to make their own conclusions about his mental state โ while some suggested that he needed to take a break, others said he should head back to the nets.
Despite Virat Kohli's low tally of runs, current Indian cricket team captain Rohit Sharma's childhood coach Dinesh Lad has backed him to get back to his best:
โVirat will make a comeback. Bad patches happen to everyone, some of the greatest cricketers have gone through it. Whether it be Viv Richards, Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, they all went through bad patches. But then they came back from it. I am sure that Virat will make a great comeback,โ Dinesh Lad told India TV.
โI think he should take care of his mental health more, that may have been affected by his form. He will always bat well, I have nothing to say about his batting. He doesn't look mentally strong which may be the reason why his performances have gone down. Not scoring a century for three years is very bad. Especially for a player like Virat. Sachin had said that his record can be broken by only two batters and they are Virat and Rohit. Virat had come close and I would like him to be breaking those records over the next few years,โ Lad concluded.
We will see what comes next.
Follow Us
Subscribe