Babar Azam rewrote the history books of T20I cricket on Tuesday (May 14) when he broke a long-standing record of the former India skipper Virat Kohli. Babar struck his 39th fifty-plus score in the format and has now become the player with the most fifty-plus scores in the shortest format of the game.
Most fifty-plus scores in T20I cricket
| S. No. | Player | Fifty-plus scores |
| 1. | Babar Azam | 39 |
| 2. | Virat Kohli | 38 |
| 3. | Rohit Sharma | 34 |
| 4. | Mohammad Rizwan | 29 |
| 5. | David Warner | 27 |
The Pakistan captain moved past Virat who has 38 such scores to his credit. Babar's historic feat came in the 3rd and final T20I between Ireland and Pakistan at Castle Avenue in Dublin. Pakistan needed to chase 179 in the series decider and Babar anchored the innings to perfection.
He played a knock of 75 off just 42 balls and batted at a strike rate of 178.57. The 29-year-old hammered six fours and five sixes during the course of his knock and kept the Irish attack on its toes.
His well-calculated knock, combined with Azam Khan's cameo (18 runs off six balls) helped Pakistan scale the target down with three overs to spare. Shaheen Shah Afridi was awarded the Player of the Match (POTM) honour for his match-winning spell of 3/14.
Meanwhile, Babar is cognizant of the challenges that lie ahead of him in the form of the England series and the Pakistan captain knows that his team needs to bring its A-game to the table.
"Big tournament coming up and this is good practice and now looking forward to the England series. lots of positives for us and we were able to execute our plans. Yes we made a few mistakes which we will sit and discuss," said Babar while talking to the broadcasters after the third T20I.
