Shoaib Malik joins elite group in T20 cricket

Veteran Pakistan all-rounder Shoaib Malik has just become the fourth batsman in history of Twenty20 cricket to breach 8,000 runs barrier.  

West Indian powerhouse Chris Gayle leads the list with over 11,000 runs in the shortest format followed by New Zealand’s Brendon McCullum with 9,188 and Kieron Pollard’s 8,225.

Malik achieved this milestone when he hit Ashley Nurse for a four to third man in Guyana Amazon Warriors’ Caribbean Premier League 2018 game against Barbados Tridents on Sunday. Malik went on to score 38 as Guyana lost by 30 runs, their first loss in the competition after two wins.

The achievement of Malik and, especially, Pollard is quite remarkable, as they have never been opening batsmen. Malik has been a No.4-No.5 batsman for much of his T20 career, while Pollard has usually batted even lower.

As a result, neither of them has a century in the format even though Malik got within one shot of it when he scored 95* in a match for Sialkot Stallions against Peshawar in Pakistan’s Super8 T20 Cup in May 2015.

Malik is also one of only five batsmen to have scored over 2,000 runs in T20 Internationals and is third on the list of highest scorers with 2121 runs, behind Martin Guptill (2,271) and McCullum (2,140).