Babar Azam becomes the fastest to 5,000 ODI runs

Pakistan skipper Babar Azam became the fastest batter to complete 5,000 one-day international runs during the fourth match against New Zealand in Karachi. The 28-year-old beat South African legendary batter Hashim Amla's record when he reached 19 runs during Pakistan's batting. Babar reached the milestone in his 97th inning among 99 ODI matches.

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Last year he narrowly missed equalling Amla's record for the fastest 4,000 ODI runs in 81 innings. This time, he made no mistake and completed 5000 runs in just 97 innings. Amla took 101 innings to complete the milestone. Babar's 97 innings to 5,000 ODI runs are followed by Amla (101), Vivian Richards (114), Virat Kohli (114), and David Warner (115). Babar is also the second-fastest to 4,000 runs, third-fastest to 3,000 ODI runs, and the joint-second-fastest to 2,000. He is the joint-third-fastest to 1,000 ODI runs as well. Babar's consistency has been on another level since his debut.

Babar Azam has been the number-one batter on the International Cricket Council's rankings for ODIs for the last two years. He also became the 14th Pakistani batter to complete 5,000 or more runs in ODI cricket. Former captain Inzamam-ul-Haq is at the top of the list with 11,701 runs.