Another historic achievement by Babar Azam makes ICC World Cup history. At this year’s big event match against Afghanistan at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, India, on Monday, Babar Azam, the captain of the Pakistan cricket team, reached 1,000 runs in the ICC World Cups for Pakistan (T20I and ODI).
Babar is competing in his fifth ICC competition (ICC Champions Trophy 2017, World Cup 2019, T20 World Cup 2021, T20 World Cup 2022, and World Cup 2023), making him just the second player from Pakistan to do so, following the illustrious Javed Miandad.
While Azam accomplished this accomplishment in his 26th innings, Miandad, the 1992 World Cup winner, did so in 28 innings.
It is noteworthy to highlight that Azam became the highest scoring Pakistani batsman in the history of the World Cup with 474 runs in eight innings during the 2019 edition.
In the 22nd match of the ICC World Cup 2023, Pakistan is playing Afghanistan. With minimal margin for mistake, the Green Shirts want to post a competitive score on the scoreboard.
With Babar Azam (49*) and Shadab Khan (2*) at the crease, Pakistan was batting at 167-4 in 35 overs when this report was filed.
Fast bowler Fazalhaq Farooqi was replaced by left-arm spinner Noor Ahmad for Afghanistan, who have only won one of their last four games.
In the seven ODIs between the two teams, Pakistan won every time they faced off. In the 2019 World Cup, Pakistan and Afghanistan squared off, with Imad Wasim leading his team to a historic triumph.
Pakistan: Imam-ul-Haq, Abdullah Shafique, Babar Azam (capt), Mohammad Rizwan (wkt), Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Usama Mir, Shahen Shah Afridi, Hasan Ali, Haris Rauf
Afghanistan: Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi (capt), Azmatullah Omarzai, Ikram Alikhil (wkt), Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Naveen-ul-Haq, Noor Ahmad
