Pakistan batsman overtakes Virat Kohli, becomes fastest to 1000 T20I runs

In the recent past, it seemed Indian skipper Virat Kohli is the only batsman capable of creating or breaking records, be it any format. His heroic display with the bat in the recently concluded ODI series against West Indies saw him make history.

But on Sunday, it wasn't Kohli, but Pakistan's Babar Azam etching his name into the record books. The 24-year-old became the fastest batsman to reach 1000 runs in T20Is, and while achieving the feat, he overtook none other than Kohli.

Kohli needed 27 innings in the format to reach the 1k-mark, while Babar bettered it by reaching the feat in 26 innings. His brilliant 58-ball 79 against New Zealand in the third T20I at Dubai helped him reach the landmark, while also helping his team win the match and thereby clean sweep the series 3-0.

While this may well have been proud moment for the young Pakistani batsman, he is still well behind Kohli when it comes to creating records or making history. 

The Indian skipper recently helped his team win yet another series at home, scoring 453 runs in the five matches against West Indies. His astonishing batting display earned him another man of the series award, a seventh overall in ODIs.

It meant that Kohli has now equaled the number of man of the series awards won by former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly and all-rounder Yuvraj Singh, as well as Viv Richards, Ricky Ponting and Hashim Amla. The only players who now stand ahead of him and yet another record are Sachin Tendulkar (15), Sanath Jayasuriya (11) and Shaun Pollock (9).

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Earlier in the series, Kohli became the first Indian batsman to score three centuries on the trot in ODIs. He became the eighth batsman in the history of ODI cricket to accomplish this feat, following the likes of Zaheer Abbas, Quinton de Kock, Saeed Anwar, Ross Taylor, Herschelle Gibbs, AB de Villiers and Kumar Sangakkara- the latter leading the way with four centuries in a row.

Prior to that, the Indian skipper had become the fastest batsman to reach the 10,000 run mark in this format. He achieved this feat in his 205th innings, overtaking his mentor Sachin Tendulkar who had reached the same number in 259 innings.