Pakistan captain Babar Azam on Monday achieved a rare feat by scoring his 10th T20I century in the Lankan Premier League (LPL), becoming the second in the world to hit 10 tons in this format of the game after West Indian legend Chris Gayle.
‘Universe Boss’ Gayle, who holds the record for the highest individual score (175* vs Pune Warriors, IPL 2013), tops the list with 22 tons in 463 matches.
Babar Azam is just the second player to score ten T20 hundreds 👑 pic.twitter.com/XAc9X9B5hH
— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) August 7, 2023
The Pakistan captain has scored three T20 centuries at international level for Somerset and Central Punjab respectively, two each in the Vitality Blast and the National T20 Cup.
He has also scored a century in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) for Peshawar Zalmi and in a tour match against Leicestershire.
Babar took his tally of T20 centuries to 10 with his first three-digit score in the LPL and the fourth century in the history of the tournament.
Thats the Century Number 10 in T20 Cricket for King Babar Azam 🥵#BabarAzam #BabarAzam𓃵 #LPL2023 pic.twitter.com/D4Frfs7GbJ
— King Babar Azam Army (@kingbabararmy) August 7, 2023
Not only this, the 28-year-old star is now the only Asian cricketer to score 10 T20 centuries.
After Babar, former Indian captain Virat Kohli is the second Asian with most T20 centuries with eight centuries.
The brilliant batsman scored a brilliant century for Colombo Strikers against Galle Gladiators at a strike rate of 176.2. He exemplified his tenure with brilliant cover drives, eight boundaries and five maximum wickets.
As one of the two opening batsmen, Babar shared a 111-run stand with Patham Nissanka, helping the Strikers to a seven-wicket victory over the Gladiators.
Babar is making his debut in the LPL, taking advantage of the opportunity to improve his performance ahead of major tournaments including the Asia Cup and ICC World Cup. He had earlier said that the tournament would help him adapt to different conditions in Asia.
