Babar Azam breaks Rohit Sharma's world record as leading T20I run-getter

In his second game since rejoining the T20I team, Babar Azam made history by surpassing Rohit Sharma's enormous world record to top an elite list during Pakistan's 9-wicket victory against South Africa to tie the series 1-1 on Friday, October 30, at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.

After his duck in the series opener, the 31-year-old walked out to bat as the home team was getting close to victory. Saim Ayub produced a brilliant innings of 71 runs in 38 balls, but Babar opened with a boundary and took no chances. He went on to make 11 runs in 18 balls to remain undefeated on the crease.

Babar reached nine runs with a single in the 12th over, surpassing Rohit's record of 4231 runs from 159 games at a strike rate of 140.89, which included five hundreds and 32 fifties. With three hundreds and thirty-six half-centuries, Babar's total for T20 Internationals now stands at 4234 runs from 130 games at a strike rate of 128.77.

Even though he tops the list now with the most runs in the T20 Internationals to his name, he has faced more balls than Rohit, even though he has played more matches than Babar. This has been an indication of the strike rate of Babar Azam, which has been the talk of the town. He has the slowest strike rate among all the top run-getters, second only to his compatriot, Mohammad Rizwan.

India's long-standing supremacy over the list of run-getters in all formats has ended with Babar's ascent to the top of the list. For a long period, an Indian was at the top of all three formats, with Sachin Tendulkar at the top of the elite list in both Tests and ODIs, while Rohit led in T20Is.

Since December, Babar had not represented Pakistan in the T20 format. Pakistan has played 26 Twenty20 Internationals while he has been away. Pakistan lost the series 2-1 in Bangladesh after winning the home series against them without Babar. Before losing to India three times in the Asia Cup, the team also won the tri-series in the United Arab Emirates and defeated the West Indies 2-1.

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