Babar Azam breaks Virat Kohli's record, makes it two in two in Asia Cup 2023

Pakistan skipper Babar Azam has scored 168 runs in 2 innings in Asia Cup 2023.

The ongoing Asia Cup 2023 tournament has been a fruitful event for Pakistan skipper Babar Azam. Babar opened up the tournament with his magnificent knock of 151 runs to complete his 19th century in ODI cricket and also broke a few records. He has batted twice in three games for Pakistan in the ongoing Asia Cup and touched multiple milestones and broken records in each innings. He may have failed to get a big score against Bangladesh, but he broke another record set by former Indian captain Virat Kohli.

Babar Azam breaks another Virat Kohli record

The number one ODI batter, Babar Azam, has now become the fastest to touch the 2000-runs milestone as a captain in ODIs. Babar Azam overtook Virat Kohli to complete 2000 ODI runs as captain in just 31 innings. This is 5 innings quicker than the former Indian captain, who took 36 innings as captain to complete 2000 runs in one-day internationals. Babar Azam took over as Pakistan captain after the 2019 World Cup from wicket-keeper Sarfaraz Ahmed. Since then, he has been scoring consistently for his team.

In his previous innings against Nepal, Babar became the quickest to complete his 19th century in the ODI format as a batter and also broke one of Virat Kohli’s Asia Cup records. Babar Azam scored a massive 151 against Nepal to break Virat’s record of being the highest scorer in one innings. Virat’s 136-runs knock was his highest as a skipper in Asia Cup before Babar Azam played a 151-runs knock against Nepal in Multan. Babar Azam has scored 11 runs in 31 innings as captain for Pakistan, his average is 69.34.

Along with Babar Azam and Virat Kohli, no other batter took less than 40 ODI innings to complete 2000 runs as captain in one-day international cricket. Former South African captain Ab De Villiers took 41 innings, while former Australian skipper Michael Clarke took 46 innings as captain to touch 2000 runs. Babar Azam will be meeting Virat Kohli and Indian team once again in Asia Cup as these two teams will play in the super four round on September 10 at R. Premadasa Stadium.