Babar Azam smashes King Kohli's massive T20 record, creates a throne for himself

Just days after snatching King Kohli's ICC throne, Pakistan skipper Babar Azam has claimed another record held by his Indian counterpart in the ongoing third T20 against Zimbabwe. Azam, on Sunday, became the fastest batsman to breach the 2000-run mark in T20 history shattering the record held by India captain Virat Kohli. The Pakistan skipper achieved the milestone in 52 innings whereas Kohli had scored his first 2000 runs in T20s within 56 innings. 

Riding high on confidence with a series win against South Africa, Azam went determined to Zimbabwe to break Kohli's record. While he failed to get going in the first T20 of the series, he made valuable 42 runs in the second T20, however, Pakistan yet ended up on the losing side as Zimbabwe registered their first-ever T20 win in history against the Men in Green. In the third T20 match underway currently, Azam has scored 41 off 36 runs at a strike rate of 113.89. 

Azam recently also trumped Virat Kohli in the ICC T20 rankings as he propelled to the top rank after his brilliant performances against South Africa. On the same tour, Azam also notched up his 13th century in 76 innings. Consequently, Babar became the fastest player to reach the milestone and also surpassed the likes of Hashim Amla (83), Virat Kohli (86), and Quinton de Kock (86). With 3683 ODI runs in 76 innings, Babar now has the second-most for any batsman. Only Hashim Amla (3734) had scored more runs in his first 76 ODI innings.

Azam reveals Kohli's advice 

After trumping the Team India skipper in the ICC ODI Rankings, Babar revealed that how Virat Kohli's advice helped him a lot to improve his performance on the field. Babar Azam dethroned India's skipper Virat Kohli, who was the number one ODI batsman in the ICC ODI rankings for the past 41 months.

Babar Azam revealed that in the beginning he did not pay much importance to the net session and practised in the nets casually. However, he overcame this and it was none other than Virat Kohli who helped him in this. Babar said, "On this, I talked to Virat Kohli once I asked him about the nets. Then it was him who told me that the way you play in the nets, what you think in the nets only those things you do in the nets. If you playing careless shots in the nets and getting out and you will play like that in the nets. Then that helped me a lot."  

Pak rattled in 2nd T20

Invited to bat first, Zimbabwe posted a total of 118 in 20 overs. Captain Sean Williams sat out this match as Brendan Taylor, who returned from an illness, replaced him as captain. Williams was forced to miss the match as he recuperates from a soft tissue injury to his left hand. Talking about Pakistan's bowling, every bowler got a wicket, however, Mohammad Hunain and Danish Aziz shared two wickets each. Debutant Arshad Iqbal got his first wicket as he dismissed Tadiwanashe Marumani on 13. 

Led by wrecker-in-chief Luke Jongwe, Zimbabwe went on to shell-shock Pakistan and bag a victory by 19 runs in the last over of the game. Jonge's four wickets and a brace from Ryan Burl reduced Pakistan's chase from 77/2 to 99 all-out. Jongwe also accounted for Pak skipper Babar Azam who led the chase and top-scored with 41 runs.