Karachi: Former captain and Pakistan batting stalwart Babar Azam became the highest run-getter in T20 Internationals to leave behind Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.
Babar achieved the feat while scoring 11 from 18 balls in the second T20Is against South Africa in Lahore Friday night.
However, a closer look at the statistics of the top five T20 run-getters also provides a clear picture of why Babar was sidelined from the Pakistan T20 side since December 2024, before he was surprisingly recalled for the South Africa series.
The statistics show that Babar has now scored 4234 runs in 123 matches at an average of 39.57 but the telling stats are his strike and number of sixes hit compared to the others in the list.
Babar has the lowest strike rate 128.77 and the least number of sixes (73) hit in the list that has Rohit, Kohli, Jos Butler and Paul Sterling.
Rohit has a strike rate of 140.89 and has hit 205 sixes in his career, Virat has a strike rate of 137.04 and has hit 124 sixes.
Butler has a strike rate of 148.97 and he has smashed 172 sixes, while Ireland’s Sterling has a strike rate of 134.86 and has hit 133 sixes.
In T20 cricket, experts give more importance to strike rates and ability to hit sixes than batting averages.
When Babar was first dropped from the T20 side reasons given were his inability to have a higher strike rate and hit boundaries and sixes in demanding situations.
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