Pakistan’s Babar Azam completes 1,000 runs in a year

KARACHI: Babar Azam became the first Pakistani in six years to score 1,000 Test runs in a calendar year and the fourth batter to reach the milestone in 2022 during the third Test against England in Karachi.

He is the sixth Pakistani batter to reach 1,000 in a year, crossing the total when he reached 45 during an innings that ended on 54.

Despite Babar’s solid form, Pakistan are staring at a first-ever 3-0 series whitewash on home soil.

Babar will have one more game in which to add to his 1,009 in 8 Tests when Pakistan take on New Zealand next week.

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England’s Joe Root – playing for the visitors in Karachi – tops the table for most runs in 2022, having scored 1,098 in 15 Tests.

Australian Usman Khawaja (1,079 in 10 Tests) and England’s Jonny Bairstow (1,061 in 10) are the other batters to have achieved the feat in Test cricket this year.

For Pakistan, Younis Khan achieved the feat twice, scoring 1,179 runs in 2006 and 1,064 in 2014.

Others to score 1,000 or more runs in a year are Mohammad Yousuf (1,788 in 2006), Inzamam-ul-Haq (1,090 in 2000), Azhar Ali (1,198 in 2016) and Mohsin Khan (1,029 in 1982).

Yousuf’s aggregate is the most by any batter in a calendar year.