Babar Azam reaches historic milestone, joins Inzamam and Miandad on Pakistan’s elite list

Babar Azam on Sunday reached another milestone in his international career, becoming the fifth Pakistani batsman to score 16,000 international runs during the first ODI of the tri-series against Sri Lanka in Rawalpindi.Babar entered the match with 15,993 runs and needed seven more to reach the 16,000-run mark. He managed it in the fourth over of the day when he came in to bat after Saim Ayub was dismissed by Dilshan Madushanka. Babar needed just six deliveries to complete the milestone and got there with an Asitha Fernando triple.Since making his international debut for Pakistan in 2015, Babar has made his mark across formats. The match against Sri Lanka was his 355th in international cricket. However, he fell short of his half-century and was bowled for 45 by Pavan Rathnayake off Eshan Malinga.Before Babar, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf and Javed Miandad were the four Pakistani batsmen to surpass 16,000 international runs.Inzamam leads Pakistan’s run-scorers in international cricket with 20,541 runs in 495 matches across formats between 1991 and 2007. Younis is next with 17,790 runs, followed by Yousuf who has scored 17,134 runs in 374 matches.Miandad, who represented Pakistan in Tests and ODIs from 1975 to 1996, finished his career with 16,213 runs in 357 matches.Sachin Tendulkar of India holds the world record for most runs in international cricket. He scored 34,357 runs in his career which spanned from 1989 to 2013.Virat Kohli is second on the list with 28,527 international runs.