Babar Azam joint-fastest to 3000 T20I runs

Babar Azam, after a couple of below par outings, has returned to his brilliant best again. The Pakistan captain, en route to his superb unbeaten 87 off 59 balls against England in the sixth T20I, reached the milestone of 3000 T20I runs as the fifth batter. The right-hander became the joint-fastest batter to achieve the feat (in terms of innings) - in 81 innings.

Only Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Martin Guptill and Paul Stirling had scored 3,000 runs before Babar in the shortest format of the game. Former Indian skipper Kohli is the quickest batter to score 3,000 runs in T20I cricket. Kohli achieved the massive milestone in 81 innings. Babar matched Kohli's feat on Friday. 

Babar reached his fifty off 41 balls but accelerated later to take Pakistan to 169 for six. Babar's next 37 runs came off just 18 balls. He hit seven boundaries and three sixes in his unbeaten knock. 

In the absence of Mohammad Rizwan, Babar anchored Pakistan's innings and got decent support from Iftikhar Ahmed and Mohammad Nawaz.